THE   LIFE    OF 
EDWARD,    EARL   OF    CLARENDON 


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THE  LIFE 

OF 

EDWARD 
EARL  OF  CLARENDON 

LORD  HIGH  CHANCELLOR  OF  ENGLAND 


BY 


SIR    HENRY   CRAIK,    K.C.B.,   LL.D. 

MEMBER    OF    PARLIAMENT     FOR    GLASGOW    AND    ABERDEEN    UNIVERSITIES 


IVITH  PORTRAITS 


VOLUME   I 


NEW    YORK 
THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY,  64-66,  FIFTH  AVENUE 

1911 


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WILLIAM    CLOWES   AND   SONS,    LIMITED 
LONDON    AND   BECCLES 


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PREFACE 

To  enter  the  domain  of  History  by  the  pathway  of  Biography 
is  a  task  beset  with  peciiHar  doubts  and  difliculties.  How 
far  is  it  permissible  to  stray  from  the  narrow  pathway  we 
have  chosen,  and  expatiate  upon  aspects  of  the  time,  which 
do  not  fall  within  the  personal  experience  of  him  whose  life 

w  we  attempt  to  pourtray  ?  If  we  restrict  ourselves  too  much, 
we  move  blindfold  along  an  obscure  track ;  if  we  range  too 
freely,  we  lose  the  identity  of  the  single  stream  we  seek  to 
follow  amidst  a  multitude  of  devious  channels.  In  writing 
Biography — above  all,  in  writing  the  Biography  of  one  who 
has  played  a  large  part  in  the  leading  transactions  of  his 

^  time — we  must  build  up  for  ourselves  a  structure  of  general 
history ;  and,  having  done  so,  we  must  then  knock  ruthlessly 
away,  like  temporary  scaffolding,  all  that  is  not  essential  to 

w    the  personal  figure  which  we  attempt  to  present. 


CO 


5 

2 

O 

S 


oc 


I  do  not  propose  to  re-write  the  history  of  the  Civil  War 
o     and  its  sequel.      I  wish   only   to  depict  the  character,  to 
t"     appreciate  the  motives,  and  to  investigate  the  action  of  one 
5     who  was  a  foremost  actor  in  the  great  struggle,  and  who 
left  the  abiding  impress  of  his  hand  in  shaping  its  con- 
sequences ;   and   to   claim   for   him  the  honour  which  he 
deserves  as  one  of  England's  great  statesmen.     I  am  quite 
aware  that,  in  so  doing,  I  must  dispute  the  adverse  and 
grudging   estimates   of   those   who    have   condemned   and 


vi  PREFACE 

i'  belittled  his  work,  and  of  those  hardly  less  unfriendly  critics 
Vwho  have  given  him  but  faint  and  lukewarm  praise. 

The  mass  of  documents  that  have  to  be  studied,  the  con- 
flicting accounts,  the  accumulating  evidence  that  has  to  be 
sifted,  and  the  difficulty  of  making  a  selection  from  the  ever- 
increasing  volume  of  testimony,  present  no  inconsiderable 
task.  I  do  not  claim  to  have  unearthed  new  documents, 
nor  have  I  sought,  from  the  obscure  memorials  that  remain, 
to  adduce  new  facts  that  might  rebut  existing  records.  Even 
to  reproduce,  in  copious  annotations,  the  foundations  upon 
which  my  narrative  is  based,  would  have  encumbered  my 
main  object,  which  is,  by  examining  the  evidence  available, 
to  show  to  the  ordinary  reader,  how  the  events  of  his  time 
presented  themselves  to  Clarendon,  how  his  part  in  them 
was  justified,  and  how  sound  are  the  reasons  for  believing 
that  part  to  be  a  great  one. 

I  claim  for  Clarendon  that  he  should  be  judged,  not 
according  to  the  political  ideas  of  a  later  day,  but  according 
to  the  notions,  the  traditions,  and,  if  you  will,  the  prejudices, 
of  his  own  time.  No  statesman  of  any  age  but  will,  in  time, 
come  to  need  such  allowance. 

I  am  aware  that,  by  some,  the  biographical  aspects  of 
history  may  be  esteemed  as  but  a  subsidiary  matter,  falling 
beneath  the  dignity  of  its  more  severe  domain,  and  of  its 
larger  theories,  and  foreign  to  what,  in  modern  jargon,  is 
styled  the  Science  of  history.  But  in  the  general,  and  not 
unsound,  judgment  of  mankind,  those  aspects  can  never  lose 
their  permanent  interest.  Above  all  is  that  paramount  in 
the  case  of  Clarendon,  whose  predilection  lay,  and  whose 
genius  was  most  conspicuously  shown,  in  that  sphere. 

Amidst  the  tangled  mass,  through  which  we  must  make 
our  way  in  order  to  construct  the  story,  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  declare  that  I  look  chiefly  to  the  great  record — if  we  may 
speak  of  it  as  one  record — which  he  has  himself  left  to  us. 
Of  the  origin  and  the  later  completion  of  that  work,  and 


PREFACE  vii 

the  somewhat  clumsy  method  by  which  the  Life  and  the 
History  were  amalgamated  into  one  whole,  of  the  divers 
objects  with  which  the  different  parts  were  written,  and  of 
the  conditions  which  affect  the  accuracy  and  authority  of 
each  part,  so  much  has  been  set  forth,  with  ample  knowledge 
and  insight,  and  with  admirable  lucidity,  by  Professor  Firth,* 
that  it  would  be  superfluous  to  discuss  them  further  here. 
Clarendon  wrote  part  of  his  great  work,  in  the  midst  of  the 
struggle,  with  abundant  opportunity  for  consulting  authori- 
ties, and  with  earnest  effort  to  detail  with  accuracy  the 
events  of  which  he  treats.     He  wrote  it  primarily  as  a  State 
paper  for  the  guidance  of   Statesmen.     Another  part   he 
wrote,  at  a  far  later  date,  at  a  distance  from  authorities, 
and  with  the  avowed  object  of  leaving  a  vindication  of  his 
action.     They  were  welded  together  with  somewhat  doubt- 
ful success  in  the  latest  years  of  his  life,  and  when  he  was 
a  banished  man.     But  of  all  parts  alike  we  can  at  least  say 
that  no  conscious  misrepresentation  mars  the  essential  truth 
of  his  picture ;  that  where  he  touches  lightly  upon  a  special 
topic,  or  omits  any  important  episode,  it  is  because  it  entered 
but  little  into  his  own  experience ;   and  that,  therefore,  for 
the  purposes  of  the  biography,  the  dramatic  record  which 
he  has  left  us  is  of  supreme  and  all-embracing  value.     No 
individual's  experience  ever  covered  the  whole  arena  over 
which  the  history  of  his  country  was  developing  itself  during 
his    lifetime.      A   man's  action  is  to  be  judged,  and  his 
character  is  to  be  estimated,  from  that  portion  of  the  stage 
which  he  occupied.     That  colours  the  whole  for  him.     From 
that  he  judges,  and  on  the  basis  of  that  he  must  frame  his 
own  rules  of  conduct.     Minute  discrepancies  and  imperfect 
knowledge  are  necessary  accompaniments  of  human  judg- 
ment.    But  they  do  not  affect  the  general  honesty  of  a 
man's  conclusions,  nor  imply  that  his  verdict  on  his  age 
was  essentially  at  fault. 

*  In  three  articles  in  the  English  Historical  Review  for  1904, 


viii  PREFACE 

Clarendon's  narrative  at  least  affords  us  an  unerring 
guide  as  to  the  motives,  the  aims,  and  the  moral  ground- 
work of  his  life. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  examine  minutely  the 
literary  side  of  Clarendon's  work.  Dr.  Johnson's  classic 
verdict  is  well  known  ^ : 

"  His  diction  is  neither  exact  in  itself,  nor  suited  to  the 
purpose  of  history.  It  is  the  effusion  of  a  mind  crowded 
with  ideas,  and  desirous  of  imparting  them ;  and  therefore 
always  accumulating  words,  and  involving  one  clause  and 
sentence  in  another.  But  there  is  in  his  negligence  a  rude 
inartificial  majesty,  which,  without  nicety  of  laboured 
elegance,  swells  the  mind  by  its  plenitude  and  effusion. 
His  narrative  is  perhaps  not  sufficiently  rapid,  being  stopped 
too  frequently  by  particularities,  which,  though  they  might 
strike  the  author  who  was  present  at  the  transactions,  will 
not  equally  detain  the  attention  of  posterity.  But  his 
ignorance  or  carelessness  of  the  art  of  writing  is  amply 
compensated  by  his  knowledge  of  nature  and  of  policy, 
the  wisdom  of  his  maxims,  the  justness  of  his  reasonings, 
and  the  variety,  distinctness,  and  strength  of  his  characters." 

What  to  Johnson  seemed  lack  of  regularity  may  seem 
to  others  not  a  very  heinous  fault.  Many  may  hold  that  the 
apparent  redundancy  and  the  impetuous  and  rugged  jar  in 
the  rhythm  even  enhance  the  artistic  effect. 

Clarendon's  influence  is  chiefly  interesting  because  he 
created  the  abiding  tradition  of  a  great  party  in  the  State, 
which  lasted  for  at  least  a  century  and  a  half.  It  is  none 
the  less  interesting  at  this  moment,  when  we  seem  to  have 
cut  ourselves  adrift  from  the  Constitutional  landmarks  of 
the  past. 

My  thanks  have  been  elsewhere  expressed  to  Professor 
Firth  for  his  kind  and  helpful  assistance  and  suggestions. 
I  am  grateful  to  the  Reverend  J.  H.  Audland,  Vicar   of 

'  Rambler,  No.  122. 


PREFACE  ix 

Dinton,  and  to  the  Reverend  John  Veysey,  Vicar  of  Purton, 
for  their  most  useful  guidance  in  regard  to  local  traditions. 
I  am  also  much  indebted  to  the  Earl  Spencer  for  permitting 
the  reproduction  of  the  most  interesting  miniature  of 
Hampden,  which  appears  as  the  frontispiece  to  Volume  II. 

HENRY  CRAIK. 

August,  1911. 


CONTENTS   OF    VOLUME    I 


OHAPTEB 

I.    Hyde's  Early  Yeaes 


II.  Widening  Experiences 

III.  The  Scottish  Troubles  and  the  Short  Parliament  . 

IV.  Hyde  in  the  Early  Days  of  the  Long  Parliament  . 
V.  Hyde's  Position  becomes  Defined         .... 

VI.  Increasing  Exasperation,  and  the  War  of  Words    . 

VII.  The  First  Campaign  of  the  Civil  War 

VIII.  Hyde  in  the  Court  at  Oxford 

IX.  Fighting  and  Parleying. 

X.  Disaster  to  the  Royal  Cause 

XI.  Defeat  of  the  Royalist  Cause 

XII.  Exile  and  Broken  Hopes 

XIII.  Cromwell's  Protectorate 


FAOe 
1 

83 
63 
85 
119 
138 
161 
187 
219 
252 
279 
319 
354 


LIST    OF    PORTRAITS 

VOLUME    I 

Edward  Hyde,  Earl  of  Clarendon,  Lord  Chancellor 
From  the  original  by  Gerard  Soest,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 

Frontispiece 

TO  FACE  PAGE 

Archbishop  Laud 42 

From  the  original  by  Sir  Antliony  Vandyke,  at  LMtnbeth  {reproduced  by 
kind  permission  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury) 

Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  First  Earl  of  Strafford       .        .      88 

From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony   Vandyke,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery 

Prince  Rupert 174 

From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke 

Lucius  Cary,  Lord  Falkland 216 

From  the  original  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford 

John  Pym 228 

From  the  original   by  Cornelius  Janssen,  in   the   Victoria   and  Albert 
Museum 

James,  First  Duke  of  Hamilton 270 

From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony   Vandyke,  in  the  Collection  of  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton 

James,  First  Marquis  of  Montrose 328 

From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke 

Francis,  Baron  Cottington 334 

From  the  original  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  (painter  imknown) 


d  «        3 


LIFE   OF  EDWARD 

EARL  OF  CLARENDON 


CHAPTER    I 


hyde's  early  years 


Edward  Hyde,  afterwards  Earl  of  Clarendon  and  Lord 
High  Chancellor,  was  born  at  Dinton,  in  Wilts,  nine  miles 
from  Salisbury,^  on  February  18th,  1601^.  His  father, 
Henry  Hyde,  although  a  younger  son,  was  the  scion  of  a 
family  of  long  descent,  and  no  small  importance,  in  the  county 
of  Cheshire.  Henry  Hyde's  grandfather,  Robert  Hyde,  who 
died  in  1531,  possessed  the  estates  of  Hyde  and  Norbury  in 
that  county.  Of  these,  the  Hyde  estate  seems  to  have 
descended  from  father  to  son  since  the  Norman  conquest, 
while  that  of  Norbury  was  acquired  by  marriage  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  HI.^  The  Cheshire  estates  remained  in  the 
family  during  the  Lord  Chancellor's  life. 

Robert  Hyde's  younger  son  was  Laurence  Hyde,  who  was 
bred  to  business  in  the  office  of  the  Auditor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  was  employed  in  the  affairs  of  Sir  John  Thynne,  an 

'  By  a  curious  slip  of  memory  with  regard  to  a  scene  so  familiar  to  his 
childhood,  Hyde,  in  his  Life,  speaks  of  Dinton  as  six  miles  from  Salisbury. 

-  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  pedigree  given  in  Ormerod's  History 
of  Cheshire,  but  Clarendon's  memory  again  misled  him,  and  in  his  Life 
he  gives  Norbury  as  the  older  family  estate,  to  which  that  of  Hyde  was  added 
by  marriage.  The  name  itself  would  be  enough  to  show  that  this  was  an 
error. 

VOL.   I.  B 


2  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEABS  [chap,  i 

adherent  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset.^  But  his  fortunes  were 
made  by  a  marriage  with  the  wealthy  widow  of  Matthew 
Calthurst,  of  Claverton,  in  Somerset,  and  her  ample  jointure 
largely  afi'ectcd  the  career  of  the  subject  of  this  biography 
and  of  his  father.  After  his  marriage,  Laurence  Hyde  found 
himself  able  to  purchase  the  considerable  estate  of  West 
Hatch,  in  Wilts,  some  seven  miles  from  Dinton,  and  there 
he  brought  up  a  large  family,  all  of  whom  attained  to  notable 
positions.  Each  of  his  four  daughters  married  landed  pro- 
prietors of  esteem  in  Wilts.  The  eldest  son,  Robert,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  estate  of  West  Hatch,  and  had  a  numerous 
progeny.  Laurence,  the  second,  acquired  large  practice  as 
a  lawyer,  and  became  Attorney- General  to  Queen  Anne  of 
Denmark,  the  consort  of  James  L  The  youngest,  Nicholas, 
became  Lord  Chief  Justice.  Pedigrees  are  proverbially 
treacherous  guides,  and  we  are  apt  to  distrust  them  when 
they  represent  unbroken  descents  from  father  to  son  for  five 
hundred  years.  But  it  is  proved  beyond  the  possibility  of 
cavil,  that  the  Hyde  family  was  one  of  respectable  and 
even  honourable  descent,  and  that,  in  point  of  antiquity  of 
known  lineage,  it  was  inferior  to  few  even  of  the  noble 
families  of  the  seventeenth  century.^  They  were  a 
numerous  clan,  and  had  struck  their  roots  deep  in  the  soil  of 
their  country.  They  had  the  further  guarantee  of  strength, 
that  they  were  linked  by  a  bond  of  "  kindliness  "  as  well  as 
of  kinship.  Hyde  himself  records  of  his  grandfather's 
family  that  "  the  great  affection  between  the  four  brothers 
and  towards  their  sisters,  of  whom  all  enjoyed  plenty  and 

'  In  1550,  Laurence  Hyde  obtained  a  grant  of  land  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Hindon,  near  Dinton,  from  Edward  VI.  (Hoare's  History  of  Wilts). 

-  "  The  Hydes  derived  their  wealth  from  being  able,  through  their 
position  as  lawyers,  to  deal  advantageously  with  the  lands,  parsonages,  and 
tithes  of  the  then  recently  dissolved  religious  houses"  {Notes  on  the  Hydes 
of  Wiltshire  and  Cheshire,  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Hammond,  of  Salisbury,  in  Wiltshire 
Notes  and  Queries).  Not  few  of  the  noble  families  acquired  their  wealth  from 
the  same  source. 


1609]  HIS   PARENTAGE  3 

contentedness;  was  very  notorious  throughout  the  country, 
and  a  credit  to  them  all."  No  unpleasant  picture,  it  will  be 
admitted,  of  an  English  country  family  in  the  days  of  Queen 
Elizabeth. 

We  have  seen  the  careers  pursued  by  three  of  the  four 
sons  of  Laurence  Hyde  ;  but  it  is  with  Henry,  the  third  son, 
that  we  are  most  concerned.     He  was  the  favourite  son  of 
his  mother,  the  wealthy  dowager,  to  whom  her  husband  had  be- 
queathed the  greater  part  of  his  own  estate,  while  she  was  also 
amply  endowed,  in  her  own  right,  by  her  previous  husband. 
By  his  father's  will,  Henry  Hyde  inherited  only  an  annuity 
of  forty  pounds,  charged  upon  the  impropriate  rectory  of 
Dinton,  which  belonged  to  the  family,^  and  which  Laurence 
Hyde  had  left  to  his  widow  for  her  life.    Like  his  brothers 
Laurence  and  Nicholas,  Henry  Hyde  was  bred  for  the  law, 
but  "  he  had  no  mind  to  its  practice."     Ail  the  four  brothers 
were  sent   to  the  University  of  Oxford  ;   but  it  was  Henry 
upon  whom  the  studies  of  the  University  produced  most 
effect.    He  was,  his  son  tells  us,  "  a  very  good  scholar  "  ;  nor 
was  he  ready  to  restrain  that  wider  range  of  study  for  the 
drudgery  of  a  profession,  even  though  the  rewards  might  be  as 
lucrative  as  those  of  the  law  proved  to  his  brothers.     Unlike 
these  brothers,  Henry  was  not  content  to  be  confined  to 
those  routine  careers  which  suited  the  conventional  tastes  and, 
in  a  plodding  way,  had  advanced  the  fortunes  of  the  eminently 
respectable,  but  not  enterprising,  family  to  which  he  belonged. 
He  had  long  "  had  an  inclination  to  travel  beyond  the  seas." 
But  travelhng  beyond  the  seas  was  no  safe  matter  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Ehzabeth,  whose  subjects  often  found  that 
the  aggressive  policy  of  their  Queen  did  not  ensure  them 
a  friendly  reception   in  foreign  countries.    Merchants  and 

•  The  rectory  and  advowson  of  Dinton  had  before  the  Reformation 
belonged  to  the  Benedictine  Convent  of  Shaftesbury.  It  afterwards  belonged 
to  the  Hydes,  and  in  1722  it  was  assigned  by  Robert  Hyde,  D.C.L.,  of  West 
Hatch,  to  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  to  which  it  still  belongs. 


4  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

soldiers  were  almost  the  only  classes  who  ventured  abroad  ; 
and  the  Hyde  tradition  pointed  neither  to  commerce  nor  the 
sword.  Weak  health  was  the  excuse  by  which  Henry  Hyde 
obtained  his  mother's  consent  to  his  going  to  Spa,  and  from 
there  he  was  able  to  extend  his  travels  further.  He  journeyed 
through  Germany,  into  Italy  ;  stayed  at  Florence  and  Vienna, 
and  even  abode  for  a  time  at  Rome.  Rome  was  a  forbidden 
dwelling-place  for  Ehzabeth's  subjects.  They  went  there 
against  the  orders  of  their  Queen,  and  were  not  unlikely  to 
feel  the  weight  of  her  suspicion  when  they  returned.  And 
even  if  they  dared  to  neglect  her  orders,  they  had  to  expect 
no  friendly  reception  from  those  they  met  in  Rome.  But 
Hyde  had  all  the  family  shrewdness  and  caution,  and  he  had 
a  good  friend  and  protector  in  Cardinal  Allen — "  the  last 
English  cardinal."  He  returned  safe  and  sound  to  England, 
even  from  the  hostile  Rome  of  Sixtus  V. 

His  mother  now  found  that  the  wanderings  of  her  favourite 
son  had  lasted  long  enough,  and  that  it  was  time  for  him  to 
marry  and  settle.  He  had  satisfied  the  desire  of  a  livelier 
fancy  than  inspired  his  brothers,  by  a  modicum  of  travel,  and 
now  the  homing  instinct  of  his  family  reasserted  its  force. 
His  mother  added  material  inducements.  Not  only  did  she 
resign  to  him  her  own  life-interest  in  the  rectory  of  Dinton, 
but  she  purchased  from  his  brother  Laurence  the  life-interest 
in  that  rectory  for  the  life  of  Henry  and  his  wife  ;  and  upon 
this  provision,  and  the  hopes  of  his  mother's  further  bounty, 
Henry  secured  the  hand  of  an  heiress  belonging  to  an  impor- 
tant county  family  in  Wilts — Mary,  the  daughter  of  Edward 
Langford,  of  Trowbridge.  His  experience  of  foreign  parts 
did  not  disqualify  Henry  Hyde  for  playing  his  part  as  a 
country  gentleman  at  home.  He  settled  down  at  Dinton, 
and  his  character  and  capacity,  cultivated  by  scholarship 
and  enlarged  by  other  scenes,  enabled  him  to  exercise  an 
unusual  influence  in  his  neighbourhood.     With  due  allowance 


1609]  HIS   FATHER'S   CHARACTER  5 

for  filial  affection,  we  may  accept  the  description  of  his 
son — 

"  He  lived  .  .  .  with  great  cheerfulness  and  content  .  .  . 
being  a  person  of  great  knowledge  and  reputation,  and  of 
so  great  esteem  for  integrity,  that  most  persons  near  him 
referred  all  matters  of  contention  and  difference  which  did 
arise  amongst  them  to  his  determination  :  by  which  that 
part  of  the  country  lived  in  more  peace  and  quietness  than 
many  of  their  neighbours." 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  he  served  in  Parliament  on 
several  occasions,  so  that  his  hfe  was  not  entirely  a  private 
one.  But  after  the  Queen's  death,  he  never  again  returned 
to  London  : — 

"  And  his  wife,  who  was  married  to  him  above  forty 
years,  never  was  in  London  in  her  life  :  the  wisdom  and 
frugahty  of  that  time  being  such,  that  few  gentlemen  made 
journeys  to  London,  or  any  other  expensive  journeys,  but 
upon  important  business,  and  their  wives  never :  by  which 
providence  they  enjoyed  and  improved  their  estates  in  the 
country,  and  kept  good  hospitality  in  their  houses,  brought 
up  their  children  well,  and  were  beloved  by  their  neighbours."^ 

In  these  words  Hyde  not  only  gives  us  a  vivid  picture  of 
the  quaint  life  that  these  squires  and  their  dames  led  in  the 
days  of  the  great  Queen  :  the  sunlit  memory  of  a  happy 
home  also  fell  brightly  on  the  page  as  he  wrote. 

That  home,  where  Henry  Hyde  lived  "  with  great  cheer- 
fulness and  content,"  was  at  the  little  village  of  Dinton, 
nestling  in  the  valley,  on  the  left  hand  of  the  old  high-road, 
which  then  ran  on  the  top  of  the  ridge,  from  Salisbury  to 
Exeter.  From  that  high-road  steep  pack-roads  plunge  down 
into  the  valley,  between  high  overhanging  rocks,  topped 
by  trees  ;  and  at  their  foot  lies  the  village,  with  its  thirteenth- 
century  church,  in  outward  aspect  much  as  it  must  have 

'  Clarendon,  Lije,  i.  5. 


6  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

been  when  Edward  Hyde  spent  his  childhood  there.  The 
dominant  note  of  the  whole  landscape  is  peacefulness  :  the 
quiet  of  lush  meadows  lying  just  below  the  village,  with 
undulating  arable  land  beyond,  and  farther  the  belts  and 
clumps  of  thick  fohage,  with  the  wide-stretching  downs  above. 
England  has  no  softer  and  gentler  aspect,  and  none,  perhaps, 
which  has  altered  less  in  the  three  hundred  years  that  have 
passed  since  Hyde  was  born.  With  no  outstanding  feature, 
the  church  is  a  goodly  specimen  of  a  fine  period  of  Gothic 
architecture,  and  is  one  of  which  the  village  may  well  be 
proud.  The  interior  has  suffered,  like  so  many  of  its  brethren, 
from  banal  restoration  ;  but  there  still  remain  some  fragments 
of  very  beautiful  old  glass,  which  must  have  been  more 
abundant  when  Hyde  was  there  as  a  boy  :  the  old  thirteenth- 
century  font,  where  he  was  christened  on  the  23rd  of 
February,  1609 ;  and  some  replicas  of  brasses  which  told  of 
members  of  the  Hyde  family  buried  there,  the  originals  of 
which  have  disappeared  under  some  vandal  hand. 

No  record  or  tradition  fixes  with  certainty  the  situation 
of  Henry  Hyde's  house,  and  the  birthplace  of  his  famous  son. 
A  yew  tree  some  hundred  yards  south-west  of  the  present 
rectory  was  said  by  tradition  to  mark  the  site,  but  it  was  cut 
down  by  an  iconoclastic  vicar  early  in  last  century.  We 
may,  perhaps,  not  unreasonably  maintain  that  Henry  Hyde 
resided  in  the  rectory  itself,  and  that  it  was  on  the  site  of  the 
present  rectory  that  the  future  Chancellor  was  born.  There 
are  solid  grounds  for  the  belief.  The  present  rectory  was 
rebuilt  about  1760  by  a  vicar  who  had  been  a  Fellow  of 
Magdalen,  and  who  introduced  into  the  facade  reminiscences 
of  the  back  quadrangle  of  that  college.  But  it  embraces 
some  old  buildings,  of  an  extent  and  solidity  which  hardly 
seem  suitable  for  an  ordinary  village  rectory.  There  is 
particularly  a  massive  culverhouse,  or  pigeon-house,  which 
was  more  in  keeping  with  the  abode  of  the  landed  squire  than 


1609]  HOME  AT  DINTON  7 

of  the  landless  parson.  We  have  to  remember,  also,  the 
notable  fact  that  from  the  earliest  time  until  now  the 
curious  arrangement  has  always  prevailed  at  Dinton,  that 
the  Rectory  House  did  not  go  with  the  benefice,  but  is  the  ex- 
clusive property  of  the  lay  rector,  to  whom  the  vicar  still  pays 
a  nominal  rent.  What  more  likely  than  that  Henry  Hyde, 
as  lay  rector,  occupied  his  own  house,  and  allowed  the  vicar, 
his  own  nominee  and  the  tutor  of  his  sons,  to  live  in  the 
so-called  Church  House,  a  substantial  building  in  the  church- 
yard, which  only  a  generation  ago  was  still  tenanted,  and 
which  is  now  crumbling  into  ruins  ?  We  like  to  give  local 
habitations  to  cherished  memories,  and  shall  continue  to 
believe  that  Edward  Hyde  played  about  the  culverhouse, 
and  wandered  about  these  ample  granaries,  until  proof  is 
shown  to  the  contrary.  Within  a  few  yards,  at  least,  we  can 
fix  his  birthplace. 

It  is  but  trifling  to  waste  time  in  searching  out  the  local 
surroundings  throughout  the  life  of  a  busy  man,  and  in 
attempting  the  vain  and  fanciful  task  of  tracing  the  impres- 
sions he  may  have  drawn  from  them.  With  no  one  would 
such  an  attempt  be  more  ridiculous  than  with  Clarendon.^ 
But  it  is  not  fanciful  to  conclude  that  a  scene  and  surround- 
ings such  as  those  amidst  which  Clarendon's  childhood  was 
passed  were  not  without  effect  in  shaping  his  temperament 
and  character.  Dinton  reflected,  at  its  best,  the  peace  and 
restfulness  of  English  country  life,  which  he  always  loved. 
Close  above  it  passed  the  great  thoroughfare  to  the  west, 
where  the  boy  could  see  the  passing  of  a  world  larger  than 
his  own,  of  whose  wonders  he  would  hear  from  the  father 
who  had  been  travelling  while  his  more  conventional  brethren 

'  Being  fairly  familiar  with  the  great  mass  of  Hyde's  writings,  I  have 
attempted,  in  vain,  to  recall  a  single  sentence  in  which  he  describes  a  scene 
in  nature,  any  incident  in  which  such  a  scene  plays  any  part,  or  even  any 
epithet,  or  any  metaphor,  which  proves  him  to  have  had  anj^  vivid  sense  of 
natural  scenery  or  of  its  dramatic  elements. 


8  HYDE'S  EAELY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

bad  been  plodding  at  tbe  law.  Tbat  father  was  a  leader  and 
a  guide  to  tbe  neigbbourbood,  and  all  around  bim  were 
scattered  bappy  bomes  of  bis  relations  wbere  young  Hyde 
would  always  be  a  welcome  guest.  Tbe  venerable  and 
stately  cburcb  lay  at  bis  door,  and  its  lessons  were  enforced 
by  tbe  personal  belief  and  ardent  devotion  of  bis  fatber,  wbo 
found  in  tbe  creed  and  ritual  of  tbe  Cburcb  of  England  a 
type  to  wbieb  bis  experiences  at  Eome  bad  made  bim  doubly 
attached.  Witbin  a  few  miles  was  Salisbury,  bis  constant 
and  familiar  resort — fittest  type  of  tbe  cbaste  beauty  and 
ordered  symmetry  of  tbe  Cburcb  of  wbicb  be  was  to  be  so 
notable  a  champion.  Surely  no  other  spot  in  England,  and 
no  other  surroundings,  could  have  inspired  tbe  boy  Edward 
Hyde  with  deeper  love  for  tbe  ordered  ways  and  seemly  life 
of  tbe  best  type  of  tbe  Engbsb  country  gentleman,  or  bnked 
that  bfe  more  closely  with  the  stately  ritual  of  the  Church, 
and  the  dignified  and  hallowed  beauty  of  her  surroundings. 
Hyde's  boyhood  breathed  tbe  very  atmosphere  of  tbe 
squire's  Hall  and  tbe  parson's  vicarage — both  at  their 
best.i 

But  tbe  best  and  strongest  influence  on  bis  life  as  a  boy 
was  that  of  bis  fatber,  to  whom  be  owed  most  of  bis  early 
education.  Hyde  was  no  product  of  tbe  public  school. 
He  was  brought  up  at  home  ;  and  although  he  was  under 
tbe  charge  of  tbe  vicar,  to  whom  bis  fatber  had  given  tbe 
presentation,  and  who,  although  be  bad  always  been  a  school- 
master, was  "  of  very  indifferent  parts,"  ^  he  was  chiefly 
trained  "  by  the  care  and  conversation  of  bis  father."  That 
fatber  was,  as  bis  son  tells  us,  "  omnifariam  doctus,"  and, 

'  It  is  worth  noting  that  Henry  Lawes,  the  musician,  friend  of  Milton  and 
of  Waller,  was  born  at  Dinton  some  dozen  years  before  Edward  Hyde.  It 
is  at  least  likelj-  that  the  seemliness  of  the  services  in  Dinton  Church,  which 
now  contains  an  organ  in  memory  of  Lawes,  owed  much  to  the  genius  of 
this  young  musician.  An  elder  brother,  William,  also  a  musician,  joined 
the  Royalist  forces,  and  was  killed  in  1G45  by  a  chance  shot. 

-  Life,  i.  6. 


1622]  HYDE  AT  OXFORD  9 

with  his  help,  Hyde  was  found  to  be  fit  for  the  University 
at  thirteen  years  of  age. 

Cheerful  and  contented  as  Henry  Hyde  was,  his  life  had 
not  been  free  from  sorrow.  His  eldest  and  his  youngest  sons, 
Laurence  and  Nicholas,  had  both  died  in  infancy.  Henry, 
the  second  son,  had  proceeded  to  Oxford,  but  his  career 
there  was  not  entirely  satisfactory,  and  he  died  at  the  age 
of  twenty-six.^  But  between  the  father  and  his  third  son, 
Edward,  there  was  the  warmest  affection  and  intimacy,  and 
Henry  Hyde  lived  long  enough  to  know  that  the  care  he  had 
spent  upon  that  son's  training  was  not  thrown  away. 

Hyde  was  taught  from  the  first  that  "  he  had  to  make 
his  fortune  by  his  own  industry,"  however  much  prosperous 
relations  might  smooth  the  way.  He  was  at  first  destined 
for  Holy  Orders,  and  with  that  view  he  went  to  Oxford  in 
1622. 

Helpful  as  the  family  influence  might  be,  the  engine  of 
patronage  did  not  at  first  work  very  smoothly  for  young 
Hyde.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  a  royal  letter  to  be  sent 
to  the  College  authorities,^  directing  the  election  to  the 
foundation  of  any  favoured  youth.  Such  a  letter 
was  written  on  behalf  of  Hyde  to  the  President  of 
Magdalen  ;  but  "  upon  pretence  that  the  letter  came  too 
late,  though  the  election  had  not  yet  begun,"  ^  he  was  not 
chosen.  He  remained  at  Magdalen  Hall,  under  the  sound 
tuition  of  Mr.  John  Oliver,  "  a  scholar  of  eminency."     It  is 

*  Clarendon  tells  us  that  when  he  himself  went  to  Oxford,  the  discipline 
was  bad,  "  the  custom  of  drinking  being  too  much  introduced  and  prac- 
tised;" and  he  adds  that  "his  elder  brother  having  been  too  much  corrupted 
in  that  kind,  and  so  having,  at  his  first  coming,  given  him  some  liberty,  at 
least  some  example,  towards  that  license."  This  may  have  been  the  first 
cause  of  the  extreme  disgust  with  which  Clarendon,  like  his  master, 
Charles  I.,  always  regarded  that  vice. 

''■  Curiously  enough,  it  was  by  Royal  Dispensation,  conveyed  through 
Clarendon,  that  Locke  was  enabled  to  hold  his  studentship  at  Christ  Church 
without  taking  Holy  Orders. 

^  Clarendon,  Lije,  i.  7.  The  injury  evidently  rankled  long  in  the 
Chancellor's  breast,  because  these  words  were  written  in  1670. 


10  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

interesting  to  note  that  forty  years  later,  after  Oliver  had 
endured  the  troubles  in  store  for  a  "  malignant "  under 
Cromwell,  he  was  restored  to  the  Presidency  of  Magdalen 
College,  in  1660,  and  next  year  became  Dean  of  Worcester 
by  the  appointment  of  his  former  pupil,  then  Lord  Chancellor. 
But  the  authorities  of  Magdalen  College  were  not  allowed 
long  to  lurk  under  excuses  for  not  obeying  the  royal  mandate. 
The  President  duly  received  "  reprehension "  from  Lord 
Conway,  as  Secretary  of  State,  for  the  previous  neglect,  and 
the  omission  was  repaired — more,  it  would  seem,  in  appear- 
ance than  reality — by  Hyde's  being  chosen  for  the  first 
vacant  demyship  ;  but  as  no  vacancy  occurred  within  a 
year,  Hyde  was  none  the  better  for  the  empty  compliment. 
Before  he  was  settled  at  Magdalen  College,  a  change  came 
over  his  prospects.  His  elder  brother  was  to  be  trained  for 
the  law.  He  had  been  destined  for  the  Church  ;  but  the 
death  of  that  elder  brother — whether  hastened  by  his 
libations  or  not — now  altered  his  father's  plans.  Edward 
was  now  to  be  trained  for  the  law,  and  he  was  accordingly 
entered  as  a  student  of  the  Middle  Temple  by  his  uncle, 
Nicholas  Hyde,  afterwards  Lord  Chief  Justice,  and  now 
Treasurer  of  the  Inn.  Owing  to  the  plague  in  London  he 
did  not  at  once  join  the  Inn  of  Court,  but  spent  the  year 
partly  at  his  father's  house,  and  partly  at  the  University, 
where  he  took  his  degree.  He  then  quitted  Oxford  (as  he 
tells  us  with  that  refreshing  candour  that  puts  lights  and 
shadows  equally  into  his  own  portraiture,  and  that  does  not 
even  omit  a  touch  of  well-developed  self-complacency)"  rather 
with  the  opinion  of  a  young  man  of  parts  and  pregnancy  of 
wit,  than  that  he  had  improved  it  much  by  industry."  It 
is  a  source  of  never-faihng  comfort  when  we  can  persuade 
ourselves  that  mother-wit  has  had  more  influence  in  our 
career  than  plodding  industry.  In  retrospect  Hyde  laid 
some  blame  for  his  own  laziness  upon  the  laxity  of  University 


1625]  ENTERS   MIDDLE   TEMPLE  11 

rule  :  "  The  discipline  of  that  time,"  he  writes,  "  was  not 
so  strict  as  it  hath  been  since,  and  as  it  ought  to  be."  We 
do  not  often  find  a  man,  in  after-reminiscences,  ^regretting 
that  he  had  not  been  driven  in  youth  with  a  tighter  rein. 
But  we  must  not  forget  Clarendon's  profound  contempt  for 
the  brutish  vice  of  drunkenness,  and  his  disgust  at  slovenly 
manners,  and  the  habits  of  the  taproom — too  often  visible 
in  the  Oxford  coteries  of  the  day.  It  is  permissible  to  fancy 
that,  in  these  words,  ho  was  reflecting  upon  the  University 
as  a  school  of  manners  quite  as  much  as  a  school  of  morals. 
It  was  perhaps  with  sarcastic  reference  to  the  grossness  not 
uncommon  in  the  Oxford  of  his  time,  rather  than  in  regret 
for  its  lack  of  moral  edification,  that  he  deemed  it  to  be  a 
fortunate  circumstance  for  himself  that  his  father  removed 
him  early  from  its  influence.  But  he  is  good  enough  to  add, 
that  for  his  alma  mater  he  always  reserved  a  "  high  esteem." 
It  was  not  till  near  the  end  of  1625  that  he  went,  with  his 
uncle  the  Treasurer,  to  London  to  begin  his  studies,  being 
then  in  his  seventeenth  year.  But  his  plans  were  again 
upset.  On  the  very  evening  of  his  arrival,  when  he  was 
attending  prayers  in  the  Temple  Church,  he  was  seized  with 
illness,  which  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  severe  attack 
of  ague,  that  long  held  him  in  its  grip.  He  was  obliged  to 
quit  London,  and  to  recover  his  health  he  went  to  his 
father's  new  home  at  Pirton,^  in  Wilts,  some  four  miles  from 
Swindon.  His  father  had  now  quitted  Dinton,  where  he 
held  only  a  life  interest  in  his  house,  and  had  settled  on  the 
land  which  he  had  purchased  some  time  before  at  Pirton. 

1  Pirton,  Pyreton,  or  Purton,  as  it  is  now  spelt  (the  name  is  said  to  be 
derived  from  pirus,  and  to  signify  a  pear-orchard),  is  a  village  a  few  miles 
from  Swindon.  The  College  Farm,  which  is  said  to  have  been  Henry 
Hyde's  house,  and  to  have  been  the  birth-place  of  Anne  Hyde,  afterwards 
Duchess  of  York,  is  a  well-preserved  structure  of  fine  architecture,  now 
occupied  as  a  farm-house.  It  contains  two  beautifully  carved  oak  fire-places, 
one  of  them  with  the  arms  of  Henry  Hyde's  mother's  family.  A  little  apart 
from  the  village  there  is  a  group  of  cottages,  stiU  called  "The  Hyde" — a 
name  which  also  marks  a  coppice  near  the  village  of  Dinton. 


12  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

While  young  Hyde  was  laid  aside  by  illness,  from  which  he 
did  not  recover  for  nearly  a  year,  his  uncle  Nicholas  was 
made  Lord  Chief  Justice  in  succession  to  Sir  Randolph  Crew, 
who  was  intractable  on  the  subject  of  the  legality  of  levying 
taxes  without  the  authority  of  Parliament,  and  in  regard  to 
the  right  of  the  Crown  to  imprison  recusants.  Sir  Nicholas 
owed  his  advancement  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (the 
brilliant  favourite  whose  career  was  now  so  near  its  close), 
and  its  price  was,  no  doubt,  a  dutiful  compliance  with  the 
behests  of  the  Crown.  The  new  Chief  Justice  was  a  pains- 
taking, but  not  a  distinguished;  lawj^er.  Whether  from 
conviction  of  the  justice  of  the  Crown's  contention,  or  from 
pliability,  he  did  not  rival  the  stubbornness  of  Crew  ;  but 
he  was  cautious  enough  to  give  no  opinion  until  he  had  an 
opportunity  of  consulting  his  colleagues,  and  compelling 
them  to  share  the  responsibility  of  his  judicial  decisions. 
He  was  a  useful  tool,  but  not  a  courageous  ally;  of  arbitrary 
power.  In  manner  he  was  reserved  and  surly,  and  had 
none  of  that  dignity  of  mien  or  that  social  tact  which  his 
famous  nephew  cultivated  so  carefully,  and  for  which  he 
was,  perhaps,  in  some  degree  indebted  to  the  fashionable 
companions  of  his  more  wayward  hours. 

The  enforced  leisure  of  a  year  had  not  improved  Hyde's 
habits  of  application,  and  his  time,  when  he  once  more 
resumed  his  legal  studies  in  London,  was  occupied  rather 
with  the  gay  society  round  him  than  with  the  mysteries  of 
the  law.  The  Inns  of  Court  still  retained  much  of  the 
character  they  had  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  her 
predecessors.  They  were  then  the  resort  of  many  of  the 
younger  sons  of  the  great  nobles,  who  went  there  with  no 
purpose  of  practice,  but  only  to  learn  something  of  the  law, 
and  who  brought  with  them  habits  of  luxury  and  lavish 
expense.  In  the  days  of  Charles  I.  this  was  still  to  some 
extent   the  custom,   as   Hyde's   experience   proved.     With 


1626]  LIFE   IN  LONDON  13 

edifying  misgivings,  he  recalled  in  later  years  the  dangers 
he  ran  from  the  frivolous  and  profligate  society  into  which 
he  was  thrown,  composed  largely  of  wealthy  idle  men,  and 
of  those  soldiers  of  fortune  who  alternated  service  in  France 
and  the  Spanish  Netherlands  wdth  long  bouts  of  idleness 
at  home  ;    but  his  misgivings   were   always  mingled   with 
a    shrewd    estimate    of    the   value   of    that    knowledge   of 
the   world   that  he  had  thereby   gained.     "  When  he   did 
indulge   himself  in  the  hberty,  it  was  without  any  signal 
debauchery,  and   not  without   some  hours  every   day,   at 
least   every    night,  spent   amongst  his   books."     So  Hyde 
writes  long  years  afterwards,  with  no  vein  of  morbid   self- 
condemnation — to  which,  indeed,   he   was   not  addicted — 
and  the  reminiscence  proves  that  even  as  a  youth  he  had  that 
strongest  element  of  will  that  knows  how  to  set  a  limit  to 
self-indulgence  short  of  ascetic  abstinence.     The  experience 
might  be  a  risky  one,  but  it  was  no  bad  training  for  one 
whose  destiny  was  to  lead  him  into  many  quicksands,  and 
bring  him  into  contact  with  many  unscrupulous  knaves, 
that  he  should  thus  early  see  something  of  Alsatia  and  make 
the  acquaintance  of  her  denizens.     Neither  these,  nor  any 
early  lessons,  made  Hyde  an  astute  time-server,  or  taught 
him  dexterity  in  manipulating  the  characters  of  his  fellow- 
men  to  his  own  purposes.     Only  later  and  hardly-bought 
experience  was  to  teach  him  to  fathom  the  depths  of  human 
knavery.     But  he  did  learn  now  that  bold  and  wholesome 
self-confidence,  and  that  readiness  to  view  life  with  well- 
balanced  perspicacity,  that  proved  helpful  to  the  boy  in  his 
teens,  and  were  to  sustain  the  man  throughout  the  perplexing 
episodes  of  a  singularly  chequered  career.     A  wholesome 
dread  of  his  uncle,  the  Chief  Justice,  kept  his  idleness  within 
bounds.    Almost  every  night  the  old  judge  propounded  to 
him  a  case  in  law,  and  young  Hyde  had  to  abstract  sufficient 
time  from  his  pleasures  to  prepare  a  thesis  upon  it.    Perhaps 


14  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

we  may  trace  the  promise  of  that  power  of  quick  concentration 
that  was  to  serve  Hyde  in  after-years,  when,  amidst  the  clash 
of  civil  war,  he  had  to  ply  his  practised  pen  under  compulsion 
of  another  sort,  and  when  the  business  was  of  a  more  serious 
kind  than  the  concocting  of  replies  to  legal  problems  that 
would  pass  muster  before  his  legal  Mentor.  But  these 
exercises,  however  dutifully  performed,  claimed  com- 
paratively little  of  young  Hyde's  attention.  What  leisure 
his  boon  companions  allowed  him  was  given  mostly  to 
literature  and  to  history,  and  but  little  to  the  musty 
conundrums  of  the  law. 

In  1628,  it  was  arranged  between  his  father  and  Sir 
Nicholas  that  the  youth  should  ride  the  Norfolk  circuit 
with  his  uncle.  Such  journeys  were  rightly  esteemed  as  an 
admirable  school  for  acquiring  knowledge  of  the  different 
counties — separated  from  one  another  by  distinctions  of 
usages  and  manners  which  it  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  ;  and 
in  long  subsequent  days  Hyde  regretted  that  he  had  had  so 
few  opportunities  for  carrying  them  out.^  In  this  case 
there  was  the  additional  inducement  of  escaping  from  London, 
then  invaded  by  an  epidemic  of  small-pox.  But  the  "  riding  " 
lasted  but  a  short  time,  and  young  Hyde  was  struck  down  at 
Cambridge  by  a  virulent  attack  of  the  very  disease  which  he 
left  London  to  escape.  The  seizure  was  so  severe  that  for 
some  time  his  life  was  despaired  of,  and  his  friends  and  the 
physician  "  consulted  of  nothing  but  the  place  and  manner 
of  his  burial."  He  lay  ill  for  a  month,  and  then  had  once 
more  to  return  to  his  father's  house  at  Pirton  for  a  long 
period  of  convalescence.  Such  was  one  of  the  most  dread 
scourges  of  pre-Harveyan  days  ! 

Once  more  he  renewed  that  reading  with  his  father  from 
which  he  had  gained  so  much  in  earlier  days.  It  was  on  an 
August   day   in   1628  that  he  and  his  father  were  reading 

'  Life,  i.  32. 


1628]  HIS  FIRST  MARRIAGE  15 

a  passage  in  Camden's  Annals,^  where  the  historian  of 
London  tells  how  a  certain  "  John  Felton  "  had  been  detected 
in  the  act  of  affixing  the  papal  Bull  to  the  doors  of  the  Bishop 
of  London's  palace,  when  they  were  interrupted  by  a  knock 
at  the  door.  Their  visitor  told  them  that  a  post  had  just 
passed  through  the  village,  carrying  to  the  Earl  of  Berkshire 
at  Charleton  the  news  that  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  had 
been  assassinated  the  day  before  ^  at  Portsmouth  by  one 
"  John  Felton." 

The  death  of  the  all-powerful  favourite  produced  a 
sudden  change  in  the  public  atmosphere.  The  excitement 
of  foreign  wars  soon  ended.  Things  settled  down  into 
a  more  humdrum  course.  Those  mutations,  which  held 
the  "  spirits  of  young  men  at  gaze,"  died  down,  and  Hyde 
returned  soon  to  London,  apparently  with  the  edifying 
resolution  to  keep  his  attention  more  concentrated  on  the 
steady  pursuit  of  his  profession. 

But  something  else  soon  happened,  still  more  fitted  to 
"  call  home  all  straggling  and  wandering  appetites."  Hyde 
tells  us,  in  a  curious  vein  of  sarcasm  against  himself,  that  his 
first  inclination  to  marriage  "  had  no  other  passion  in  it  than 
an  appetite  to  a  convenient  estate."  Perhaps  his  retrospect 
was  scarcely  just  to  his  own  early  romance.     But,  however 


'  The  passage  quoted  by  Clarendon  {Life,  i.  p.  11)  is  taken  from  the 
Second  Part  of  the  Latin  version  of  Camden's  Annals  of  the  Reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  published  in  1615,  the  English  translation  of  that  part 
not  being  published  till  1629.  It  refers  to  the  bold  action  taken,  in  1570, 
by  John  Felton,  an  ardent  Roman  Catholic,  of  ancient  lineage  and  great 
wealth,  in  resistance  to  the  Queen's  defiance  of  the  Pope.  His  high 
position  did  not  save  him  from  the  torture  of  the  rack,  and  from  being 
hanged.  The  coincidence  of  names  is  curious,  no  less  than  the  fortuitous 
incident  mentioned  by  Clarendon.  The  first  John  FeJton's  family  belonged 
to  Norfolk,  and  that  of  his  later  namesake  to  Suffolk.  The  first  Felton 
was  held  to  have  suffered  justly,  although  his  action  harmed  no  one,  and 
his  courage  and  sincerity  were  indubitable.  The  second  was  an  obscure 
and  crazy  fanatic,  who  nursed  some  petty  grievance  of  his  own,  and  was 
guUty  of  a  dastardly  murder.  He  was  exempt  from  torture;  and  when  he 
was  justly  hanged,  the  populace  acclaimed  him  as  a  martyr. 

-  August  24th,  Bartholomew  Day. 


16  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

prompted,  he  now  formed  an  attachment,  approved  by  both 
families,  for  the  daughter  of  Sir  George  Ayhffe,  a  Wiltshire 
gentleman  of  high  rank  and  good  fortune.^  In  1 629  they  were 
married,  and  the  prospect  before  the  young  couple  seemed 
a  bright  one.  But  before  six  months  were  gone,  as  they  were 
journeying  from  London  to  Pirton,  the  young  bride  fell  sick 
of  small-pox  at  Reading,  and  died  in  two  days.  For  one  of 
Hyde's  temperament,  the  blow  was  a  crushing  one,  and  the 
words  with  which  he  recalls  his  loss  in  long  after-years  may 
perhaps  justify  us  in  concluding  that  the  memory  of  this 
his  first  love  was  never  effaced  by  new  attachments,  and 
that  it  rested  upon  a  stronger  foundation  than  selfishness  and 
expediency.  "  It  shook  all  the  frame  of  his  resolutions,"  he 
tells  us,  and  only  his  duty  to  his  father  kept  him  from 
abandoning  his  profession  and  going  abroad  "  to  enjoy  his 
own  melancholy."  But  Hyde's  innate  courage  never  allowed 
him  to  indulge  the  morbid  fancies  of  hypochondria  too  long  ; 
and  he  checked  that  wandering  instinct  which  he  had  perhaps 
inherited  from  his  father.  Once  more  a  stalwart  will  was 
called  into  play  to  force  him  to  pursue  his  path.  For  a  time 
he  seems  to  have  remained  at  Pirton,  but  before  long  he  was 
again  in  London,  disciplining  himself  for  the  work  of  his 
profession,  and  finding  in  it  perhaps  distraction,  if  not  some 
solace,  in  his  grief. 

His  position  in  that  profession  was  now  seriously  altered. 
He  was  no  longer  to  trust  to  the  powerful  patronage  of  a 
Lord  Chief  Justice.     Old  Sir  Nicholas's  career  lasted  only 

•  Through  his  first  wife,  Hyde  became  connected  with  the  Villiers  family 
and  the  Dukes  of  Buckingham.  The  earliest  wTiting  of  his  which  we  possess 
is  a  tract  on  The  Difference  and  Disparity  between  the  Estate  and  Con- 
dition oj  George,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  Robert,  Earl  of  Essex,  printed 
amongst  Reliquiae  Wottonianse  (1675),  and  said  to  be  "  wiitten  by  the 
Earl  of  Clarendon  in  his  younger  days."  The  comparison  is  between  the 
favourites  of  Elizabeth  and  of  James  I.  It  gives  to  Buckingham  the  high 
praise  due  from  his  young  kinsman  by  marriage,  and  although  the  style 
is  involved,  unpolished,  and  in  some  ways  youthful,  it  contains  quaint  and 
striking  turns  of  expression,  and  has  features  like  the  author's  later  prose. 


1631]  SECOND  MAKPJAGE  17 

a  short  time  after  his  nephew's  widowhood.  In  the  summer 
of  1631,^  he  was  carried  off  by  gaol  fever — that  dread  scourge 
that  spared  neither  judge  nor  malefactor.  Hyde  had  now 
to  make  his  way  alone.  Not  only  had  he  lost  the  uncle  whose 
protection  seemed  to  promise  him  a  safe  professional  career, 
but  his  uncle's  great  patron,  Buckingham,  was  dead ;  and 
the  young  lawyer  had  now  only  the  help  of  a  moderate 
competence,  of  a  family  highly  respected,  and  of  a 
character  which  joined,  to  keen  ambition  and  fundamental 
strength  of  will,  a  lively  interest  in  the  society  round 
him,  and  a  wondrous  skill  of  steering  his  bark  amidst 
its  quicksands.  His  legal  studies  never  commanded  his 
real  interest ;  but  perhaps  they  were  now  pursued  with 
greater  zeal  and  with  an  object  more  serious  than 
that  of  providing  answers  to  his  uncle's  hypothetical  legal 
problems. 

In  1632,  after  three  years  of  widowhood,  he  had  so  far 
recovered  from  his  bereavement  as  to  form  a  new  attachment. 
His  choice  was  now  fixed  upon  Frances,  daughter  of  Sir 
Thomas  Aylesbury,  who  had  formerly  been  Secretary  to  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  was  now  Master  of  the  Mint,  as 
well  as  judge  in  the  court  in  which  Hyde  was  practising. 
The  marriage,  in  all  respects  a  prudent  one,  received,  like 
his  first,  the  cordial  approval  of  both  families,  and  Hyde  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  his  new  father-in-law  as  one  to  whom 
he  was  glad  to  entrust  his  daughter.  Both  families  were  of 
competent  means,  and  once  more  the  prospect  of  a  happy 
married  life  was  promised  to  Hyde.  His  new  wife  was  his 
faithful  life-companion  :  she  shared  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
fortune  with  him,  and  death  broke  the  tie  only  a  few 
weeks  before  the  Chancellor's  fall  in  1667.  Of  his  family 
life    Hyde   speaks   with    a  warmth   and   a   gratitude   that 

•  Hyde  in  hig  Life  mentions  his  uncle's  death  aa  if  it  had  occurred  in 
1629  ;   but  it  was  really  two  years  later. 

VOL.  I.  C 


18  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

are  evidently  sincere.     But  the  memory  of  his  first  love 
did  not  die. 

The  happiness  of  Hyde's  new  married  life  was  soon  dis- 
turbed by  another  loss.  We  have  seen  how  close  was  the 
tie  between  himself  and  his  father.  A  few  months  after  his 
marriage,  he  brought  his  wife  to  his  father's  house  ;  but 
already  Henry  Hyde's  health  was  broken.  He  had  for  some 
time  suffered  from  a  serious  cardiac  trouble.^  He  was 
subject  to  seizures  of  violent  pain,  but  in  the  intervals 
recovered  all  that  happy  equanimity  which  had  endeared 
him  to  a  wide  circle  of  friends.  Just  before  Michaelmas 
Day,  1632,  he  came  to  Sahsbury,  where  he  proposed  to  reside, 
in  order  to  be  close  to  the  Cathedral,  to  the  service  of  which 
he  was  lovingly  attached,  and  in  order  to  renew  his  intercourse 
with  many  friends  who  lived  there.  The  next  day  he  received 
a  host  of  callers,  come  to  bid  him  welcome.  On  the  day 
following  (Sunday)  he  rose  early  and  went  to  "  two  or  three 
churches  :  "  selected  a  place  of  burial  at  the  Cathedral,  which 
he  described  to  his  wife  and  son,  enjoining  them  to  see  that 
he  was  buried  there.  Later  in  the  day  he  attended  the 
Cathedral  sermon,  and  engaged  in  cheerful  conversation 
with  friends.  On  Monday  he  went  to  visit  his  elder  brother, 
Sir  Laurence  Hyde,^  and  leaving  him  again  went  to  church. 
Lnmediately  after,  he  had  one  of  his  usual  seizures,  and 

'  My  friend.  Dr.  Norman  Moore,  whose  literary  interests  open  a  still 
wider  range  to  his  professional  qualifications,  informs  me  that  the  disease  of 
which  Henry  Hyde  died  was  angina  pectoris.  In  his  Life  (i.  78)  Clarendon 
describes  his  father's  symptoms  in  some  detail,  especially  a  frequently  recurr- 
ing pain.  From  the  age  of  sixty,  it  increased  very  much.  "  He  was  still  and 
constantly  seized  on  by  so  sharp  a  pain  in  the  left  arm  for  half  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  or  near  so  much,  that  the  torment  made  him  as  pale  (whereas  he 
was  otherwise  of  a  very  sanguine  complexion)  as  if  he  were  dead  ;  and  ho 
used  to  say  that  he  had  passed  the  pangs  of  death,  and  he  should  die  in 
one  of  those  fits.  As  soon  as  it  was  over  he  was  the  cheerfullest  man  living 
.  .  .  but  ho  had  the  image  of  death  so  constantly  before  him  in  those  con- 
tinual torments,  that  for  many  years  before  his  death  he  always  parted 
with  his  son  as  to  sec  him  no  more." 

-  "  Who  was  then  making  a  journey  in  the  service  of  the  King " 
(Clarendon,  Life,  i.  20). 


1632]  HIS  FATHER'S   DEATH  19 

dropped    down    dead,   without    the   least    motion    of    any 
limb.^ 

"  It  cannot  be  expressed,"  says  Hyde  himself,  "  with 
what  agony  his  son  bore  this  loss,  having,  as  he  was  used  to 
say,  not  only  lost  the  best  father,  but  the  best  friend  and  the 
best  companion  he  ever  had  or  could  have." 

In  the  days  of  Hyde's  greatness,  the  memory  of  his 
parents  did  not  grow  weaker.  "  He  did  not  value  any 
honour  he  had  so  much  as  the  being  the  son  of  such  a  father 
and  mother."  In  the  formal  days  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  is  not  often  that  we  meet  with  a  bond  between 
father  and  son  so  full  of  reverence,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of 
cordial  companionship  and  sympathy. 

Hyde  was  now  nearly  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  had 
been  called  to  the  Bar  two  or  three  years  before.  Responsi- 
bility and  ambition  alike  quickened  his  industry,  and  one 
incident  after  another  gave  him  opportunity,  which  he  was  apt 
to  turn  to  the  best  use,  of  cultivating  relations  with  the  larger 
world.    For  this  he  was  now  fitting  himself  (in  spite  of  those 

'  "  The  suddenness  of  it,"  says  Clarendon,  "  made  it  apprehended  to 
be  an  apoplexy  :  but  there  being  nothing  like  convulsions,  or  the  least  dis- 
tortion or  alteration  in  the  visage,  it  is  not  like  to  be  from  that  cause  :  nor 
could  the  physicians  make  any  reasonable  guess  from  whence  that  mortal 
blow  proceeded." 

For  the  following  note  I  am  again  indebted  to  Dr.  Norman  Moore : — 
"  Dr.  William  Heberden,  in  his  Commentaries  published  in  1802,  but 
written  some  years  earlier,  first  described  this  disease  (for  a  sentence  in 
Caelius  Aurelianus  is  too  indefinite  to  be  considered  a  description)  accurately. 
He  had  seen  nearly  one  hundred  people  with  this  disorder,  and  mentions  one 
case  almost  exactly  like  that  of  Clarendon's  father. 

"  A  man  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  life  began  to  feel,  while  he  was  walking, 
an  uneasy  sensation  in  his  left  arm.  He  never  perceived  it  while  he  was 
travelling  in  a  carriage.  After  it  had  continued  ten  years,  it  would  come 
upon  him  two  or  three  times  a  week  at  night,  while  he  was  in  bed,  and  then 
he  was  obliged  to  sit  up  for  an  hour  or  two  before  it  would  abate  so  much 
as  to  suffer  him  to  lie  down.  He  died  suddenly  without  a  groan  at  the  age 
of  seventy-five."  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  and  Sir  Charles  Bell,  the  discoverer 
of  the  motor  and  sensory  nerves,  both  died  of  this  disease.  It  is  now  known 
to  be  associated  with  disease  of  the  aortic  valves,  with  degeneration  of  the 
commencement  of  the  aorta,  and  with  obstruction  and  degeneration  of  the 
coronary  arteries  of  the  heart." 


20  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

more  wayward  and  dangerous  associations,  to  the  peril  of 
which  he  looked  back  in  later  years  with  thankfulness  for 
risks  only  just  avoided),  by  carefully  cherishing  every  chance 
of  intercourse  with  what  was  most  worth  cultivating  in  the 
circle  amidst  which  he  lived.  One  of  the  most  solid  founda- 
tions of  his  power  was  that  genius  for  friendship  which  was 
so  eminently  his.  As  for  his  political  opinions,  we  may  take 
it  that  they  were  now  of  no  very  decided  complexion  ;  and 
one  so  shrewd  as  he  was  not  likely,  amidst  the  shifting 
phases  of  the  world  around  him,  to  pronounce  them  with 
undue  emphasis.  His  uncle,  as  we  have  seen,  had  prevailed 
with  his  conscience  to  frame  his  legal  decisions  on  the  lines 
acceptable  to  the  Court,  and  in  accordance  with  the  pre- 
vailing views  of  the  supremacy  of  royal  prerogative  ;  but 
if  the  story  told  by  Burnet  as  to  his  father's  last  injunctions 
to  him  be  true,  any  such  leanings  on  the  part  of  young 
Hyde  must  have  been  more  than  balanced  by  his  father's 
suggestion  that  the  prerogative  might  be  stretched  too  far.^ 
Politics  will  only  too  soon  assume  a  dominant  place  in  the 
story  of  Hyde's  life.  For  the  present  it  is  more  pleasant 
to  trace  the  early  friendships,  the  memory  of  which  lived 
with  him  to  the  end,  and  which  he  has  painted  for  us  with 
the  master  hand  of  an  artist. 

The  first  group  of  acquaintances  is  that  in  which  he  found 
himself  one  of  its  youngest  members,  and  consisted  of  men 
who  had  either  achieved  their  fame,  or  were  pursuing  careers 


1  According  to  Burnet's  story  {History  of  His  Own  Times,  i.  159),  Clarendon 
in  later  years  used  to  trace  his  own  attachment  "  to  the  ancient  liberties  of 
England,  as  well  as  to  the  rights  of  the  Crown,"  to  advice  given  him  by  his 
father  just  before  his  death.  "  That  men  of  his  profession  did  often  stretch 
law  and  prerogative,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  to  recom- 
mend and  advance  themselves :  so  he  charged  him,  if  he  ever  grew  to  any 
eminence  in  his  profession,  that  he  should  never  sacrifice  the  laws  and 
liberties  of  his  country  to  his  own  interests,  or  to  the  will  of  a  prince." 
Burnet  says  he  had  the  story  from  Lady  Ranelagh,  to  whom  it  was  often 
told  by  Clarendon.  Burnet  is  mistaken  as  to  the  circumstances  of  Henry- 
Hyde's  death  ;   but  this  does  not  disprove  the  truth  of  the  advice. 


1633]  BEN   JONSON  21 

which  were  soon  to  draw  them  apart  from  sympathy  with 
Hyde.  His  intercourse  with  them  belonged  to  the  days 
when  he  was  only  a  student  of  law,  and  when  "  he  stood  at 
gaze,  irresolute  what  course  of  life  to  take."  Chief  amongst 
them  stood  Ben  Jonson.  It  was  very  soon  after  Hyde's 
arrival  in  London  as  a  boy  of  seventeen,  that  Jonson  was 
overtaken  by  the  scourges  of  palsy  and  dropsy,  which  made 
him  but  a  shadow  of  what  he  once  had  been.  The  old  days 
of  the  '  Mermaid  Tavern,'  which  had  seen  the  colloquies 
of  Shakespeare  and  Jonson,  were  now  long  past.  But  Ben 
Jonson  still  reigned  supreme,  in  spite  of  all  the  attacks  of 
envenomed  enemies,  and  after  the  storm  of  a  hundred 
bitter  fights,  as  the  dictator  of  the  Enghsh  literary  world  ;  and 
the  '  Old  Devil  Tavern  '  at  Temple  Bar  was  the  home  of  that 
Apollo  Club  which  he  had  founded,  and  there  the  Latin 
rules  which  he  had  drafted  were  displayed  for  the  guidance 
of  all  novices,  who  aspired  to  be  inscribed  as  the  adopted 
sons  of  the  old  Laureate,  and  to  be  "  sealed  of  the  tribe 
of  Ben."  Young  Hyde  could  scarcely  have  been  more 
than  an  obscure  attendant  at  these  convivialities,  and  perhaps 
his  estimate  of  Ben  Jonson's  powers  is  the  result  rather  of 
later  formed  judgment  than  the  impressions  of  these  early 
meetings.^  But  it  must  have  been  much  to  the  boy  to  see 
one  who  had  been  the  friend  of  Shakespeare  and  of  Bacon, 
and  whose  patronage  was  now  sufficient  to  open  to  the  young 
aspirant  the  most  exclusive  circles  of  the  poets  and  the  wits. 
It  was  no  small  boast  that  he  had  met  "  with  extraordinary 
kindness  "  from  such  an  arbiter  of  taste.    But  the  dictator 

^  Recalling  these  days  in  his  own  Life,  in  1G68,  Clarendon's  judgment  of 
Ben  Jonson  is  that  of  a  mature  inteUect,  not  of  a  boy.  "  His  name,"  he  says, 
"  can  never  be  forgotten,  having  by  his  very  good  learning  and  the  severity 
of  his  nature  and  manners,  very  much  reformed  the  stage,  and  indeed  the 
English  poetry  itself.  Hie  natural  advantages  were,  judgment  to  order  and 
govern  fancy,  rather  than  excess  of  fancy,  his  productions  being  slow  and 
upon  deliberation,  yet  then  abounding  with  great  wit  and  fancy,  and  will 
live  accordingly,"  and  so  on  [Life,  i.  34). 


22  HYDE'S   EAKLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

accepted  nothing  but  absolute  allegiance.  "  Mr.  Hyde's 
business  had  its  claims  upon  his  time,"  and  Jonson  "  believed 
that  business  ought  never  to  be  preferred  before  his  company." 
Another  of  the  group  was  Selden — wisest,  most  learned, 
most  fastidious,  most  judicial,  most  moderate,  and  yet  most 
baffling  of  all  who  took  part  in  the  troublous  sea  of  civil 
contention.  Most  calm  of  revolutionaries  ;  most  temperate 
of  iconoclasts  ;  one  who  would  have  based  all  innovations 
upon  some  historical  theory,  and  would  have  reformed  the 
Church  in  the  light  of  patristic  learning.  Again  and  again 
in  later  years,  Hyde  was  to  turn  to  that  unique  figure  of 
unruffled  calm,  and  find  it  hard  to  reconcile  his  choice  of 
party  with  his  well-balanced  judgment  and  with  that  absolute 
sincerity  which  Hyde  had  learned  to  appreciate  to  the  full. 
When  he  is  arguing  for  the  rights  of  the  Church,  and  for  the 
fundamental  importance  of  its  episcopal  government,  he 
can  understand  the  opposition  of  the  vulgar  herd  of 
lawyers,  but  the  estrangement  of  the  truly  learned  lawyers 
— of  "  the  knowing  and  discerning  men  "  amongst  them — he 
cannot  explain.^  We  cannot  doubt  that  throughout  all  that 
elaborate  pleading,  he  has  Selden  in  view,  and  is  vainly 
trying  to  find  a  reason  for  the  divergence  which  was  drawing 
them  so  far  and  so  painfully  apart.  His  words,  telling  of 
their  early  friendship,  which  brought  him,  a  youth  in  his 
teens,  under  the  influence  of  a  man  his  senior  by  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  and  already  a  sufferer  for  his  bold  maintenance 
of  constitutional  rights,  are  strong  enough  to  show  the 
amazing  influence  which  Selden  must  have  exercised  upon 
him,  then,  and,  in  spite  of  all  differences,  in  far  later  years. 

"  Mr.  Selden  was  a  person  whom  no  character  can  flatter, 
or  transmit  in  any  expressions  equal  to  his  merit  and  virtue. 
He  was  of  so  stupendous  learning  in  all  kinds  and  in  all 
languages  (as  may  appear  in  his  excellent  and  transcendent 

'  History  of  the  Eebellion,  iv.  40. 


1633]  SELDEN  23 

writings)  that  a  man  would  have  thought  he  had  been 
entirely  conversant  amongst  books,  and  never  spent  an 
hour  but  in  reading  and  writing  ;  yet  his  humanity,  courtesy, 
and  affabiHty,  was  such,  that  he  would  have  been  thought 
to  have  been  bred  in  the  best  courts,  but  that  his  good 
nature,  charity,  and  delight  in  doing  good,  and  in  com- 
municating all  he  knew,  exceeded  that  breeding.  His  style 
in  all  his  writings  seems  harsh  and  somewhat  obscure,  which 
is  not  wholly  to  be  imputed  to  the  abstruse  subjects  of  which 
he  commonly  treated,  out  of  the  path  trod  by  other  men  ; 
but  to  a  httle  undervaluing  the  beauty  of  a  style,  and  too 
much  propensity  to  the  language  of  antiquity  ;  but  in  his 
conversation  he  was  the  most  clear  discourser,  and  had  the 
best  faculty  of  making  hard  things  easy,  and  presenting 
them  to  the  understanding,  of  any  man  that  hath  been  known. 
Mr.  Hyde  was  wont  to  say  that  he  valued  himself  upon 
nothing  more  than  upon  having  had  Mr.  Selden's  acquaint- 
ance from  the  time  he  was  very  young,  and  held  it  with  great 
delight  as  long  as  they  were  suffered  to  continue  together 
in  London  ;  and  he  was  much  troubled  always  when  he 
heard  him  blamed,  censured,  and  reproached,  for  staying  in 
London,  and  in  Parliament,  after  thej'  were  in  rebellion,  and 
in  the  worst  times,  which  his  age  obliged  him  to  do  ;  and  how 
wicked  soever  the  actions  which  were  every  day  done,  he  was 
confident  he  had  not  given  his  consent  to  them,  but  would 
have  hindered  them  if  he  could  with  his  own  safety,  to  which 
he  was  always  enough  indulgent.  If  he  had  some  infirmities 
with  other  men,  they  were  weighed  down  with  wonderful  and 
prodigious  abilities  and  excellencies  in  the  other  scale."  ^ 

It  is  a  generous,  almost  a  lavish,  tribute  of  praise,  in  spite 
of  the  hint  of  sarcasm  against  that  weakness  in  Selden  which 
made  him  a  feeble  combatant  in  an  age  that  called  for  fighting 
men.^  We  cannot  doubt  that,  whatever  had  been  the 
tenor  of  his  father's  precepts,  it  was  to  Selden  that  Hyde 
owed,  not  only  the  dominant  note  of  moderation  that  clung 

•  Lije,  j.  35. 

-  "  He  was  always  a  lover  of  his  ease,"  says  Hyde  again,  in  the  History 
of  the  Rebellion,  Book  V.  p.  209. 


24  HYDE'S   EAKLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

to  his  whole  scheme  of  poHcy,  but  also  that  historic  sense, 
and  that  reverence  for  institutions  as  a  part  of  the  life  of  the 
nation,  which  from  first  to  last  shaped  and  inspired  that 
scheme.  Hyde  was  cast  in  stronger  mould  than  Selden  ; 
his  courage  was  keener,  his  heart  was  stouter,  and,  with 
warmer  feelings,  his  anger  was  more  easily  roused.  But 
the  gentle  courtesy  and  the  well-balanced  judgment  of  the 
cultured  scholar  remained  with  him  as  a  guide  and  an 
example  throughout  his  life. 

There  were  others  of  the  circle  who  had  no  such  potent 
influence  on  Hyde,  but  served  to  introduce  him  to  another 
phase  of  society,  and  gave  him  new  subjects  for  that  study 
of  human  character  in  which  he  was  to  prove  himself  such 
an  adept.  Such  were  Charles  Cotton  and  Thomas  Carew, 
both  scions  of  good  family,  who  added  to  a  lively  wit,  and 
to  a  superstructure  of  learning  more  imposing  than  solid, 
the  graces  that  w^ere  the  fashion  in  a  society  of  studied 
courtesy  and  grace.  They  both  aspired  to  be  finished 
gentlemen  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  day ;  facile  votaries 
of  an  artificial  muse  ;  and  esteemed  it  an  added  ornament  to 
a  courtier's  life,  to  be  counted  of  the  inner  circle  of  men  of 
letters  and  scholarship.  Of  Cotton — whose  son  has  earned 
a  more  enduring  name  as  the  friend  and  collaborator  of 
Izaak  Walton — Hyde  speaks  with  indulgent  kindness. 

"  He  had  all  those  qualities  which  in  youth  raise  men  to 
the  reputation  of  being  fine  gentlemen  :  such  a  pleasantness 
and  gaiety  of  humour,  such  a  sweetness  and  gentleness  of 
nature,  and  such  a  civility  and  delightfulness  in  conversation, 
that  no  man  in  the  Court  appeared  a  more  accomplished 
person  ;  all  these  extraordinary  qualifications  being  sup- 
ported by  as  extraordinary  a  clearness  of  courage  and  fear- 
lessness of  spirit,  of  which  he  gave  too  often  manifestations." 

It  gives  us  a  bright  glimpse  of  a  blithe  spirit ;  but  one 
ill-assorted  with  the  coming   times  of  strain  and  struggle. 


1633]  Sm   KENELM   DIGBY  25 

Under  the  waves  of  civil  struggle  the  graceful  and  polished 
courtier  was  submerged  ;  his  age  was  less  reverenced  than 
his  youth,  and  he  "  gave  his  best  friends  cause  to  wish  that 
he  had  not  lived  so  long."  ^  Carew,  hke  Cotton,  fluttered 
about  the  Court,  as  a  choice  specimen  of  the  hterary  dandy, 
and,  like  him,  knew  how  to  make  the  pursuit  of  the  muses 
add  another  accomplishment  to  the  equipment  of  the  fine 
gentleman  ;  but  he  at  least  contributed,  as  Cotton  did  not, 
a  few  jewels  of  sound  quality  to  the  treasures  of  English 
poetry.  In  learning  to  value  the  sharpness  of  a  fancy  like 
his,  and  the  dexterous  elegance  of  his  poetic  diction,  Hyde 
gained  a  new  ingredient,  which  was  to  swell  the  music  of 
his  own  deep-sounding  organ. 

Amongst  that  memorable  circle  there  was  one — almost 
Hyde's  own  contemporary — who  even  thus  early  had  achieved 
notable  fame, — the  fame  of  a  doughty  soldier,  of  a  finished 
courtier,  of  an  accomplished  man  of  letters.  Sir  Kenelm 
Digby's  extraordinary  personal  quahties  helped  him,  the 
son  of  one  who  had  died  a  felon's  death  for  participation  in 
the  gunpowder  plot,  to  overcome  all  difficulties,  to  hold  his 
own  amongst  the  proudest  aristocrats,  and  to  astonish  the 
world  by  his  amazing  versatility.  He  was  the  choice  example 
of  the  travelled  courtier  of  the  day,  famihar  with  every 
country  in  Europe,  affecting  a  proud  catholicity  of  taste, 
fostering  a  dignified,  if  somewhat  flamboyant,  pride,  by  all  the 
arts  that  could  add  ornament  to  Hfe.  He  was  a  brilliant 
meteor  rather  than  an  enduring  force  ;  but  Ben  Jonson's 
high-sounding  words  help  us  to  conceive  what  such  a 
personality  must  have  meant  to  his  more  humble  contem- 
porary, young  Edward  Hyde. 

"  In  him  all  virtue  is  beheld  in  State  : 
And  he  is  built  like  some  imperial  room 
For  that  to  dwell  in,  and  be  still  at  home." 


1  Life,  i.  37.     He  died  in  1658. 


26  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

They  are  brave  words,  echoing  the  sound  of  a  brave 
and  goodly  company,  that  filled  the  eyes  of  the  young 
lawyer  m  these  early  years. 

There  were  others  about  whose  names  no  such  glamour 
gathers  as  they  live  in  Hyde's  reminiscences.  John  Vaughan 
was  only  a  few  years  his  senior,  and  their  lives  ended  in  the 
same  year.  Early  friendship  made  them  associates  for  a 
time  in  the  first  stages  of  the  civil  struggle,  but  Vaughan's 
time-serving  and  vacillation  made  it  hard  for  any  one  to 
discern  any  principle  in  his  action.  Alternately  he  served 
King  and  Parliament,  and  was  at  least  astute  enough  to 
suffer  no  severity  of  hardship  at  the  hands  of  either  party. 
After  the  Restoration,  Hyde  tried  to  induce  his  friend  of 
early  days  to  accept  a  judgeship.  Perhaps  Vaughan's 
grudging  nature  was  jealous  of  the  great  place  now  held  by 
the  companion  of  his  youth.  He  refused  the  offer,  and  used 
his  undoubted  eloquence  and  eminent  parliamentary  power  ^ 
as  Hyde's  persistent  and  embittered  adversary.  His  later 
years  seem  to  have  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  youth  as 
depicted  by  Hyde  : — 

"  A  man  of  great  parts  of  nature,  and  very  well  adorned 
by  arts  and  books,  and  so  much  cherished  by  Mr.  Selden 
that  he  grew  to  be  of  entire  trust  and  friendship  with  him, 
and  to  that  owed  the  best  part  of  his  reputation  :  for  he 
was  of  so  magisterial  and  supercilious  a  humour,  so  proud 
and  insolent  a  behaviour,  that  all  Mr.  Selden's  instructions, 
and  authority,  and  example,  could  not  file  off  that  roughness 
of  his  nature,  so  as  to  make  him  very  grateful." 

The  circle  evidently  contained  examples  useful  to  young 
Hyde,  of  what  to  avoid,  as  well  as  of  what  to  follow,  and 

'  In  Pepys's  Diary  we  have  repeated  references  to  the  eloquence  of  "  the 
great  Mr.  Vaughan ;  "  and  Pepys's  tribute  is  not  rendered  the  less  lavish  from 
the  circumstance  that  Vaughan  flattered  the  good  Secretary's  vanity  by 
well-timed  praise.  But  even  Pepys  has  to  admit  that  he  was  !'  passionate 
and  opiniastre." 


1633]  OTHER   ASSOCIATES  27 

Vaughan  was  a  notable  instance  of  the  former.  Powers  that 
were  weighed  down  by  a  sulky  temper,  an  intellectual 
capacity  blunted  by  prejudice,  jealousy  that  brooded  over 
fancied  wrongs,  and  an  eloquence  backed  by  no  con- 
structive power — these  were  the  quahties  which  showed 
themselves  to  young  Hyde  in  his  youthful  companion, 
and  the  fruit  of  which  the  Chancellor  was  to  feel  in  after 
years. 

Another  there  was,  endowed  with  none  of  those  gifts  of 
fortune,  and  none  of  the  graces  of  mind  or  body  which  were 
shared  by  the  brighter  members  of  the  circle.  Thomas  May 
was  some  fourteen  years  older  than  Hyde,  and  already, 
before  Hyde  came  to  London,  he  had  achieved  a  certain 
literary  reputation  by  his  translation  of  Lucan,  to  which 
he  afterwards  added  a  continuation  carrying  the  history  of 
Rome  to  the  assassination  of  Julius  Caesar,  which  it  was 
the  fashion  of  the  new  school  to  treat  as  an  act  of  righteous 
vengeance  for  outraged  liberty.  Depressed  by  poverty,  and 
by  an  impediment  of  speech.  May  could  not  aspire  to  be  an 
ornament  of  Court,  nor  to  play  the  role  of  a  poHshed  gentle- 
man ;  but  his  translations  had  attained  a  succes  d'estime, 
and  his  essays  in  historical  writing  had  secured  at  least  the 
favour,  if  not  the  admiration,  of  the  literary  circles  of  the 
Court.  But  the  temper  of  a  soured  dependant  is  apt  to  be 
easily  irritated.  May  failed  to  obtain  the  Laureateship  on 
the  death  of  Ben  Jonson.  He  nursed  his  grudge  against  the 
Court :  drew  into  ever  closer  relations  with  its  opponents, 
and  became  the  associate  of  those  in  whose  service  he  could 
feed  his  personal  jealousy.  During  the  Civil  War,  he  acted 
as  "  Secretary  "  to  the  Parliament  (whatever  that  office 
meant)  and  was  employed  to  write  the  official  "  History  of 
the  Long  Parliament  " — a  production  whose  very  origin 
prescribed  a  certain  formal  appearance  of  impartiality,  which 
can  deceive  no  one,  and  made  necessary  a  prosaic   dulness 


28  HYDE'S   EAELY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

which  has  reserved  its  perusal  only  for  the  curious.^  It  was 
a  sorry  task,  and  Clarendon  has  a  word  of  pitying  regret  for 
the  servile  function  which  his  early  friend  fulfilled.  His 
life  ended  in  1650,  while  he  was  still  busy  over  the  task  of 
chronicling  the  doings  of  his  paymasters. 

With  this  circle,  Hyde  mixed  only  as  the  young  student, 
finding  in  the  society  of  older  men  a  guide  and  an  incentive, 
and  above  all  a  safeguard  against  that  more  frivolous 
society  which  had  attractions  for  him — the  less  dangerous 
because  he  recognized  the  danger,  and  carefully  cultivated 
the  antidote.  A  few  years  later  he  found  himself  in 
another  society  of  men,  almost  all  contemporaries  of  his 
own — attracted  to  them  not  by  the  humble  reverence  of 
youth  for  age,  but  by  the  stronger  ties  of  ungrudging 
admiration,  close  sympathy,  and  warm  affection. 

"  He  had  then  another  conjunction  and  communication 
that  he  took  so  much  delight  in,  that  he  embraced  it  in  the 
time  of  his  greatest  business  and  practice,  and  would  suffer 
no  other  pretence  or  obligation  to  withdraw  him  from  that 
familiarity  and  friendship  :  and  took  frequent  occasion  to 
mention  their  names  with  great  pleasure,  being  often  heard 
to  say  '  that  if  he  had  any  good  in  him,  in  his  humour,  or  in 
his  manners,  he  owed  it  to  the  example  and  the  information 
he  had  received  in  and  from  that  company,  with  most  of 
whom  he  had  an  entire  friendship.'  "  ^ 

They  were  Lucius  Carey  :  Sir  Francis  Wenman  :  Sidney 
Godolphin :  Edmund  Waller :  Gilbert  Sheldon :  George 
Morley :  John  Earles  :  John  Hales  of  Eton  :  and  William 
Chillingworth.  A  goodly  company,  indeed,  and  amongst 
them  Hyde  was  no  longer  the  obscure  and  callow  student, 
but  the  formed  man  of  the  world,  taking  his  place  amongst 

'  Chatham's  praise  of  its  impartiality  is,  of  course,  well  known,  but  can- 
not alter  the  fact.  Partiality  can  be  shown  as  much  by  sins  of  omission  as 
by  eloquence  of  denunciation. 

■  Life,  i.  41. 


i 


1683]  CHOICE  OF  FEIENDS  29 

them  as  an  equal,  facing  the  same  fierce  contentions, 
warmed  by  the  same  ambitions,  exchanging  the  same 
commerce  of  thought  and  argument  on  the  great  problems 
of  the  day.  It  was  an  association  far  different  from  that  of 
the  older  circle. 

In  both  cases  the  guiding  principle  in  his  choice  of  friend- 
ships remained  the  same.  As  he  quaintly  expresses  it,^ 
according  to  his  usual  method  in  the  autobiography,  of 
resorting  to  the  third  person,  "  he  was  often  heard  to  say  " 
that 

"next  to  the  immediate  blessing  and  providence  of   God^ 
Almighty,  which  had   preserved  him  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  his  life  (less  strict  than  it  ought  to  have  been)  from  r 

many  dangers  and  disadvantages  in  which  many  other  young  ^  jhf  ^ 
men  were  lost,  he  owed  all  the  little  he  knew,  and  the  little  "^ 
good  that  was  in  him,  to  the  friendships  and  co'nversation 
he  had  still  been  used  to,  of  the  most  excellent  men  in  their 
several  kinds  that  lived  in  that  age :  by  whose  learning,  and 
information,  and  instruction,  he  formed  his  studies,  and 
mended  his  understanding  :  and  by  whose  gentleness  and 
sweetness  of  behaviour,  and  justice,  and  virtue,  and  example, 
he  formed  his  manners,  subdued  that  pride,  and  suppressed 
that  heat  and  passion  he  was  naturally  inclined  to  be  trans- 
ported with." 

So  again — 


he  used  often  to  say  '  that  he  never  was  so  proud, 
or  thought  himself  so  good  a  man,  as  when  he  was  the  worst 
man  in  the  company  '  ;  '  that  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life 
he  never  knew  one  man  of  what  condition  soever,  arrive  to 
any  degree  of  reputation  in  the  world,  who  made  choice 
or  delighted  in  the  company  or  conversation  of  those  who  in 
their  qualities  were  inferior,  or  in  their  parts  not  much 
superior  to  himself.'  " 

To  some,  this  may  savour  of  sycophancy.     The  very 
frankness  with  which  he  utters  what  is  not  a  resolution  made 

'  Life,  i.  33. 


30  HYDE'S   EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

in  youth,  but  a  conclusion  drawn  in  old  age  and  after  ripe 
experience,  shows  that  there  is  in  it  nothing  of  servility  or 
obsequiousness.  It  is  at  least  sycophancy  much  sublimated, 
and  moving  in  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  sycophant  can 
scarcely  breathe.  And  it  is  most  indubitably  sound  worldly 
wisdom,  the  result  of  a  due  sense  of  proportion.  It  remained 
Hyde's  firm  conviction  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Again  and 
again,  in  his  inimitable  delineations  of  character,  he  traces 
evil  traits,  which  marred  and  disfigured  many  a  personality,  to 
ill-chosen  associates,  intercourse  with  whom  dragged  a  man 
downwards,  instead  of  teaching  him  to  lift  his  gaze  higher, 
and  to  breathe  a  purer  air.^ 

Of  that  younger  company,  the  centre  and  inspiring  spirit 
was  young  Lucius  Carey,  afterwards  Lord  Falkland. 
Low  of  stature,  with  an  awkward  gait,  a  countenance  of 
no  intellectual  mark,  an  inharmonious  voice — he  yet  gave 
to  others  the  priceless  gift  of  a  nature  framed  at  once  of 
gentlest  courtesy,  of  invincible  courage,  and  of  the  purest 
sincerity.  "  All  mankind  could  not  but  love  and  admire 
him  "  ;  and  that  love  and  admiration  were  to  Hyde  as  a 
religion,  that  kindled  all  that  was  best  in  his  nature,  that 
gave  him  the  companionship  of  a  soul  of  noblest  chivalry, 
and  that  left  the  world  for  him  gray  and  overcast  when  his 
friend  fell  in  the  early  years  of  the  civil  war.  Till  death 
parted  them  their  lives  were  knit  in  closest  union  ;  and  again 
and  again  we  have  to  trace  Hyde's  opinions  shaping  them- 
selves in  the  bond  of  this  his  closest  friendship,  that  inspired 
him  even  during  the  troublous  years  when  it  had  ceased  to 
be  aught  but  a  cherished  memory. 

It  was  at  Carey's  house  of  Tew,  in  Oxfordshire,  that  the 
company  gathered  most  often.     Thither  they  came  to  find 

'  As  one  example  amongst  many,  sec  the  character  of  Lord  Robartes 
{Life,  ii.  19).  In  Hyde's  opinion  even  Laud's  character  suffered  from  the 
same  experience  of  sycophantic  surroundings. 


1633]  SOCIETY   AT   TEW  31 

their  lodgings  ready  as  in  their  colleges  at  Oxford.  They 
came  "  to  study  in  a  purer  air,  finding  all  the  books  they 
could  desire  in  his  library,  and  all  the  persons  together  whose 
company  they  could  wish,  and  not  find  in  any  other  society." 
There  Wenman  brought  his  courtly  grace,  his  incomparable 
wit,  his  piercing  judgment,  and  his  ripe  scholarship.  There 
Sidney  Godolphin  ^  showed  how  large  a  store  of  fancy  and  of 
mental  grasp  might  be  contained  in  a  puny  frame  that 
nursed  itself  with  something  of  Epicurean  tenderness, 
which  he  proved  liimself  able  to  throw  aside  when  his  country 
called  him,  and  when  he  gladly  gave  his  life  in  battle  for  what 
he  deemed  the  better  cause.  There  Waller  charmed  with 
his  pleasant  discourse,  in  earnest  and  in  jest ;  indulged  his 
brooding  fancy  and  shaped  his  stately  eloquence  ;  and  there 
he  sharpened  the  excellence  and  power  of  that  wit  "of 
which,"  says  Hyde,  "  no  more  need  be  said  than  that  it  was 
of  magnitude  enough  to  cover  a  world  of  very  great  faults  " — 
a  narrow  nature,  a  lack  of  courage,  servile  flattery  and 
insinuation ;  that  strange  blend  of  qualities  that  to  the  end 
of  a  long  life  saw  Waller  safe  through  many  degradations, 
and  "  continued  to  his  age  with  that  rare  f elicit v,  that  his 
company  was  acceptable  where  his  spirit  was  odious,  and  he 
was,  at  least,  pitied  when  he  was  most  detested." 

There  Gilbert  Sheldon  nursed  that  grave  and  prudent 
spirit  of  statesmanship  that  made  his  young  companions 
mark  him  as  one  "  born  and  bred  to  be  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury ;    and   there   George   Morley's   lively   wit,   his 


'  Sidney  Godolphin  was  born  of  a  good  Cornish  family  in  1609.  From 
his  earliest  days  he  was  a  favourite  at  Court,  and  an  adherent  of  Lord 
Strafford,  whose  attainder  he  resisted.  When  war  broke  out,  he  joined 
Hopton's  army,  and  was  killed  at  Chagford  in  1643.  His  nephew  was  the 
Earl  of  Godolphin,  the  Whig  minister  of  Charles  II.  and  Queen  Anne. 
"  There  was  never  so  great  a  mind  and  spirit  contained  in  so  little 
room  "  (Clarendon,  Life,  i.  61).  Even  Falkland,  small  as  he  was,  found 
his  friendship  for  Godolphin  all  the  pleasanter  because  in  his  company  he 
could  reckon  himself  "  the  properer  man." 


32  HYDE'S  EARLY  YEARS  [chap,  i 

graceful  scholarship,  his  dexterity  in  argument,  at  once 
attracted  and  puzzled  the  admiring  circle.  If  his  proneness 
to  jest  at  first  roused  prejudices  in  the  mind  of  Laud,  his 
dexterity  overcame  them,  and  he  lived  to  earn,  by  stalwart 
loyalty  and  abundant  sufferings,  the  high  preferment  which 
came  to  him  in  later  days  under  the  ministry  of  his  early 
friend  Edward  Hyde.  There  Earle's  quaint  genius  and 
facetious  wit  ripened  in  a  congenial  soil ;  and  there  John 
Hale's  far-reaching  charity  and  learned  tolerance  found  that 
restful  haven  of  peaceful  friendship  which  was  all  his  soul 
desired.  There  Chillingworth's  restless  humour  indulged  its 
craving  for  discussion,  foiled  and  perplexed  his  adversaries 
by  his  imperturbable  good  temper,  and  luxuriated  in  those 
wire-spun  arguments  that  led  him  through  a  maze  of  doubt, 
and  entangled  him  in  endless  religious  transformations ; 
destined  to  spend  the  latest  efforts  of  his  ingenuity  in  the 
strange  endeavour  to  devise  a  new  martial  instrument,  which 
involved  him  in  the  clash  of  opposing  armies,  and  made  him 
end  his  days  a  prisoner  of  war.  With  such  wealth  of  com- 
panionship, and  amidst  such  happy  scenes,  Hyde  spent  the 
leisure  of  these  ripening  years,  snatched  from  a  life  of 
constantly  increasing  business.  Together  the  little  circle 
watched  the  great  problems,  slowly  emerging,  pregnant  with 
fateful  issues  for  so  many  amongst  them.  But  misgivings 
as  to  the  future  were  readily  alleviated  by  the  perennial 
luxury  of  speculative  discourse. 


CHAPTER   II 

WIDENING    EXPERIENCES 

We  have  dwelt  with  the  more  detail  upon  the  personalities 
of  the  two  notable  circles  with  which  he  mixed  in  youth  and 
in  his  maturing  manhood,  because  they  meant  to  Hyde 
much  more  than  they  would  have  meant  to  most  men.  To 
him  friendship  was  the  chief  delight  of  hfe,  the  study  of 
character  its  most  absorbing  interest.  The  historic  sense 
was  strong  in  him,  but  it  was  marked  by  his  own  idiosyn- 
crasies. He  looked  upon  history  as  the  gradual  development 
of  institutions,  and  as  the  result  of  great  personalities. 
With  great  popular  movements  he  felt  no  deep  sympathy, 
nor  did  he  seek  to  recognize  in  history  the  evolution  of  any 
supreme  law  of  human  progress.  His  hfe  fell  in  a  thrilling 
epoch,  and  he  viewed  it  as  a  scene  on  which  the  figures  moved 
with  all  the  picturesque  distinctness  of  their  own  strong 
individuality,  like  the  actors  in  a  great  drama.^  They 
seemed  to  him  to  shape  circumstances  to  their  own  ends, 
and  history  derived  for  him  its  chief  interest  as  the  stage 
upon  which  these  dominating  figures  moved.  We  need  not 
seek  in  Hyde  for  the  qualities  of  a  philosophic  historian,  or 
for  any  attempt  to  pursue  the  themes  of  what  a  later  age  has 
called  the  science  of  history.  To  him  history  was  character 
in  action  ;    and  it  was  as  one  of  the  prime  actors  that  he 

^  "  I  conceive,"  says  Hyde,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  John  Earle  of  March  16, 
1647,  "  tnat  the  preservation  of  the  fame  and  merit  of  persons,  and  deriving 
the  same  to  posterity,  is  no  less  the  business  of  history  than  the  truth  of 
things  "  (  Clarendon,  State  Papers,  ii.  350). 

VOL.  I.  D 


34  WIDENING  EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

viewed  those  who  shared  the  stage  with  him.  Hence  the 
interest  in  his  hfe  of  those  personal  associations,  and  hence 
the  importance  of  the  first  incidents  that  brought  him  into 
close  contact  with  the  living  society  of  his  day.  Books  were 
much  to  him,  but  the  drama  of  human  passion  in  action 
around  him  was  far  more.  We  now  turn  to  some  of  the 
incidents  that  gave  him  his  first  experience  of  the  ways  of 
men. 

It  was  in  1633  that  Hyde  was  called  upon  to  intervene  in 
the  first  of  those  many  social  complications  in  which  he 
was  to  play  a  part.  Such  episodes  interpose  themselves 
with  strange  frequency  amidst  the  political  contests  of  the 
day,  and  upon  these  they  often  had  an  influence  which  may 
surprise  us,  but  which  we  cannot  refuse  to  take  into  account. 
We  can  understand  the  anger  which  was  stirred  by  them  ; 
the  abiding  family  feuds  they  bred.  The  puzzling  element 
comes  in  when  we  try  to  appreciate  the  motives  that  operated 
amongst  those  who  were  parties  to  these  feuds,  and  who 
often  enough  shaped  their  political  allegiance  by  the  passions 
which  were  thus  aroused.  They  are  stirred  as  we  would  be 
to-day  ;  but  it  is  only  when  we  come  to  consider  what 
honour  and  delicacy  of  feeling  would  dictate  to  us,  that  we 
find  a  strange  divergence  between  that  day  and  our  own. 

A  scandal  had  arisen  within  the  precincts  of  the  Queen's 
Court,  in  which  the  honour  of  more  than  one  noble  family 
had  been  deeply  involved.  Eleanor  Villiers,  the  sister  of 
Lord  Grandison,  and  a  maid  of  honour  to  the  Queen,  had 
suffered  the  most  cruel  wrong  from  that  coarse  and  brutish 
libertine,  Henry  Jermyn.  He  was  an  adventurer  of  a  base 
type,  who  managed,  by  over-weening  self-confidence,  a 
specious  address,  and  unbounded  powers  of  dissimulation, 
to  gain  some  credit  at  Court.  The  physique  of  a  drayman 
had  earned  him  credit  for  a  manliness  which  he  did  not 
possess,  and  a  certain  clumsy  cajolery  ^uppUed  in  him  the 


1633]  A  SOCIAL   EPISODE  35 

place  of  wit.  By  such  plausible  arts  he  had  gained  much 
influence  with  the  Queen,  and,  revolting  as  it  is  to  connect 
a  vulgar  scandal  with  one  of  the  foremost  figures  in  the  great 
tragedy  now  beginning,  that  favour  undoubtedly  made  the 
Queen  the  victim  of  some  malicious  tales,  widely  repeated 
and  as  widely  believed.  However  that  might  be,  this  coarse 
debauchee  acquired  a  reputation  which  won  for  him  the 
contempt  of  every  honourable  man,  and  maintained  it  in 
full  vigour  until  he  died  an  octogenarian  in  1684.  At  once 
a  bully  and  a  coward  ;  a  hypocrite  and  a  bungler  ;  a  gamester 
who  haunted  the  card-table  when  his  palsied  hands  could 
scarcely  grasp  the  cards,  and  when  his  eyesight  had  so  failed 
that  another  had  to  describe  their  faces  to  him;  a  glutton  who 
retained  the  greed  of  the  gourmand  without  his  appetite  ;  a 
spendthrift  loaded  with  ill-gotten  gains,  and  yet  with  all  the 
avarice  of  the  miser — in  a  word,  a  byeword  even  to  the 
gallants  of  Charles  II. 's  Court  as  a  loathsome  monument 
of  decayed  debauchery. 

Such  was  the  man  who  had  stained  the  good  fame  of 
a  Jady  connected  with  some  of  the  leading  aristocratic 
houses.  Powerful  influence  was  now  employed  to  force 
Jermyn  to  repair  the  injury  by  marriage.  The  brother  of 
Eleanor  Villiers,  Lord  Grandison,  sought  to  avenge  the 
insult  by  the  means  which  would  have  suggested  itself  to 
most  men  down  to  a  far  later  day  ;  but  the  settlement  of 
the  matter  by  duel  was  prevented  by  an  order  from  the 
King,  which  committed  both  the  parties  to  prison.  Such 
an  order  seems  to  have  aroused  no  resentment,  although 
one  would  have  thought  that  a  proud  aristocracy  would 
— perhaps  with  some  recklessness,  but  not  without  attracting 
some  sympathy — have  more  readily  tolerated  interferences 
with  political  privileges  than  with  the  right  of  settling  their 
own  affairs  of  honour  by  the  course  then  usual.  But  this 
rough  and  ready  method   being  perforce  abandoned,   the 


36  WIDENING   EXPEEIENCES  [chap,  ii 

matter  became  the  subject  of  grave  and  embittered  dis- 
cussion, in  which  the  denizens  of  the  Court  became  violent 
partisans.  The  affair  involved  serious  party  divergences, 
and  constitutional  issues  were  mixed  up  with  it.  The 
Marquis  of  Hamilton  was  deeply  concerned,  as  a  near 
relative  of  the  family  ;  and  as  the  lady  was  first  cousin  to 
Hyde's  first  wife,  that  fact,  and  his  own  warm  friendship  for 
Lord  Grandison,  caused  his  advice  to  be  called  in  during 
these  acrimonious  discussions.  It  marked  his  position  at 
once  as  a  kinsman  of  a  noble  house  and  as  a  lawyer  of  rising 
reputation.  The  enmities  bred  of  that  dispute  did  not  soon 
die,  and  from  the  Court  factions  it  developed,  Hyde 
traces  the  new  and  baneful  influence  exercised  by  women 
of  the  Court  in  political  affairs.  Perhaps  it  was,  in  part, 
the  origin  of  the  Queen's  inveterate  jealousy  of  Hyde, 
which  was  afterwards  to  be  more  openly  shown,  when 
Hyde's  influence  was  more  worthy  of  her  serious  jealousy. 
At  all  events,  he  himself  felt  that  it  had  a  decisive  influence 
upon  his  career,  and  he  records  it  with  that  half-humorous 
and  half-pedantic  analysis  which  he  habitually  applies  as 
impartially  to  his  own  case  as  to  others.  "  It  introduced 
him,"  he  tells  us,^  "  into  another  way  of  conversation  than 
he  had  formerly  been  accustomed  to."  "  By  the  friends  and 
enemies  he  then  made,  it  had,"  he  says,  "  an  influence  upon 
the  whole  course  of  his  life  afterwards."  It  was  an  ugly 
story,  and  one  which  most  men  would  have  gladly  buried  in 
oblivion.  But  that  was  not  the  manner,  nor  suited  the 
taste,  of  the  time  :  nor  would  Hyde's  narrative  have  had  its 
dramatic  force  for  us,  had  it  hidden  away  unsightly,  but 
crucial,  episodes  like  this. 

Jermyn,  after  suffering  banishment  for  a  certain  time, 
was  restored  to  his  former  position  about  the  Court.  The 
Marquis   of    Hamilton   became,   strangely   enough,   drawn 

1  Life,  i.  16. 


1634]  A   COURT   MASQUE  37 

into  closer  confidence  with  the  Queen,  and  was  estranged 
from  Hyde,  who  conceived  that  he  saw  signs  of  that  want 
of  sincerity  in  the  Marquis  which  his  later  experience 
confirmed. 

An  episode  of  the  following  year,  which  introduced 
Hyde  into  a  new  sphere  of  activity,  has  more  amusing 
ingredients.  The  Court  circles  had  recently  been  much 
disturbed  by  the  publication  of  Prynne's  Histriomastix, 
which  denounced  the  depravity  of  stage  plays,  and  seemed 
to  reflect  upon  the  Queen,  who  had  not  felt  it  incon- 
sistent with  her  dignity  to  take  part  in  some  masques  at 
the  Court.  The  unfortunate  lampooner  was  severely 
dealt  with  by  the  Star  Chamber,  which,  after  the  drastic 
fashion  of  the  time,  condemned  him  to  stand  in  the 
pillory,  to  have  his  ears  cropped,  and  to  suffer  imprisonment 
of  uncertain,  but  prolonged,  duration.  Even  those,  like 
Hyde,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  Prynne,  were  scandalized 
by  the  severity  of  his  punishment,  which  seemed  more 
suitable  to  the  case  of  a  notorious  malefactor  than  to  that 
of  a  professional  man,  whose  perverted  zeal  for  puritanic 
strictness  had  tempted  him  to  libel  the  person  of  the  Queen. 
But  such  scruples  did  not  prevent  the  feeling  that  it  was 
necessary  to  meet  the  insult  to  the  Court  by  some  flattering 
compliment  which  would  show  that  the  attack  found  neither 
sympathy  nor  approval.  It  seemed  to  be  a  suitable  method 
of  doing  this  that  the  Inns  of  Court  should  organize  a 
masque,  on  a  lavish  scale,  for  the  entertainment  of  their 
Majesties.  This  was  done  at  vast  expense  by  the  brethren 
of  the  Gown  ;  and  Hyde,  as  a  barrister  in  rising  business, 
was  one  of  the  four  chosen  by  the  Middle  Temple  to  represent 
them  on  the  occasion.  The  matter  was  not  left  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  were  pronounced  favourers  of  the  Court,  and 
the  names  of  Whitelocke  and  Selden  appear  as  promoters  who 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  festivity.     It  is  to  Whitelocke 

428320 


38  WIDENING   EXPEKIENCES  [chap,  ii 

indeed,  that  we  owe  the  most  elaborate  description  of 
the  display.  Descending  into  quaintly  minute  particulars, 
and  detailing,  with  almost  excessive  particularity,  the  dresses 
of  the  participants  and  the  elaborate  arrangements  of  the 
procession,  his  account  shows  that  whatever  might  be  the 
difficulties  of  raising  money  for  national  needs,  there  was 
no  disposition  to  curtail  extravagant  expenditure  on  festal 
display,  and  that  the  fraternity  of  the  Bar  were  not  unwilling 
to  rival  the  ornate  fashion  then  prevalent  amongst  the 
courtiers  and  the  landed  aristocracy.  It  teaches  us  much 
as  to  the  wealth  which  had  accrued  to  England  from  the 
burst  of  commercial  activity  which  dated  from  the  days  of 
Elizabeth.  The  cost  to  the  Inns  of  Court  was  calculated 
at  not  less  than  twenty  thousand  pounds,  and  this  does  not 
probably  include  the  lavish  private  expenditure  which  the 
show  entailed.  The  masque  was  The  Triumph  of  Peace,  by 
James  Shirley,  and  after  a  full  parade  of  all  the  accessories 
of  the  display  in  a  procession  from  Ely  House,  in  Holborn, 
to  Whitehall,  the  masque  was  "  incomparably  performed  " 
in  the  Banqueting  Hall  before  the  King  and  Queen  and  the 
Court.  It  was  repeated  next  day  in  the  city,  where  the 
Court  was  entertained  at  a  banquet  by  the  Lord  Mayor.  It 
is  strange  to  think  of  another  scene  which  that  same  Banquet- 
ing Hall  was  to  witness  sixteen  years  later,  when  Charles 
passed  through  its  window  to  the  scaffold  on  which  he  was 
to  die. 

As  a  sequel  to  the  splendour  of  the  entertainment,  which 
was  one  of  the  last  of  its  kind  before  the  nation  entered  upon 
another  mood,  and  betook  itself  to  graver  concerns,  Hyde 
was,  with  the  other  organizers,  presented  to  the  King  and 
Queen.  Inconsistent  as  it  seems  with  the  tenor  of  Hyde's 
later  life,  we  must  not  forget  that  in  these  early  days  such 
an  entertainment  was  dignified  for  him  by  the  example  of  Ben 
Jonson  and  others  of  the  great  fraternity  with  whom  he  had 


1635]  INTERCOUESE   WITH  LAUD  39 

been  linked  in  his  younger  years.  For  the  present  it  served 
as  one  more  step  in  that  social  advancement  which  the 
shrewd  young  lawyer  sought  in  common  with  his  contem- 
poraries, and  which  he  saw  to  be  as  useful  for  professional 
advancement  as  dogged  perseverance  in  the  drudgery  of  the 
law.  The  latter  he  did  not  neglect ;  but  a  sure  instinct  told 
him  that  knowledge  of  men  and  manners  was  after  all  a  more 
powerful  lever  for  his  ambition,  and  he  is  throughout  inclined, 
perhaps  with  some  complacency,  rather  to  exaggerate  his 
neglect  of  the  drudgery,  and  to  dwell  upon  those  accessories 
which  were  to  make  him  a  facile  and  adaptive  judge  of 
character,  and  were  to  enable  him  with  ease  to  take  his  place 
amongst  the  proud  and  somewhat  fantastic  aristocracy  of 
the  day.  At  present  we  must  regard  him  as  the  young  man 
careless  of  grave  political  problems,  and  carried  onwards 
by  the  favouring  breeze  of  youthful  ambition.  Probably  to 
him  and  to  his  fellow-masquers  there  came  little  thought  of 
the  solid  mass  of  obdurate  nonconformity  which  was  scan- 
dalized by  such  performances  ;  and,  in  the  triumph  of  their 
well-received  and  courtly  compliment,  they  troubled  them- 
selves little  with  the  strictly  legal  effect  of  the  Star  Chamber 
incident,  the  memory  of  which  it  was  intended  to  obliterate. 

It  is  curious  to  surmise  how  it  may  have  been  viewed  by 
the  stricter  conscience  of  Laud,  who  might  have  approved 
the  punishment  of  an  ill-mannered  satirist,  but  can  scarcely 
have  relished  the  extravagant  fantasy  of  the  flatterers  of 
the  Queen.  The  next  incident  in  Hyde's  Hfe  brought 
him  into  closer  contact  with  that  ardent  leader  of  the 
Church,  who  has  been  the  central  theme  of  admiration 
and  abhorrence  to  those  who  have  taken  diverse  views 
of  the  history  of  the  time  ;  and  with  regard  to  no  one 
is  the  shrewdness  of  Hyde's  judgment  of  character  more 
conspicuous. 

The  occasion  of  their  first  meeting  was  curious,  and  tells 


40  WIDENING   EXPEEIENCES  [chap,  ii 

us  much  of  Hyde's  gradual  advance  in  the  line  of  hfe  that 
he  had  chosen.    In  1635,  the  death  of  Weston,  Earl  of 
Portland,  had  vacated  the  office  of  Lord  Treasurer.     It  was 
"  an  office  very  slippery  and  not  fast  to  those  who  had 
trusted  themselves  in  it."  ^     Weston  had  risen  to  it  painfully, 
after  patient  labour  and  years  of  disappointment.     Assiduous 
courting  of  the  great,  and  especially  of  Buckingham,  had  at 
length  won  for  him  preferment ;   but  it  was  only  after  long 
years  of  perilous  labour  in  foreign  missions,  and  after  ripe 
experience  had  taught  him  how  to  "  swim  with  a  good  grace 
in  those  troubled  and  boisterous  waters,  in  which  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham  rode  as  admiral,"  ^  that  he  earned  the  con- 
fidence of  the  great  favourite  sufficiently  to  be  appointed 
Lord    Treasurer.     Buckingham's    patronage    might    have 
failed  him  when  his  own  promotion  gave  food  for  jealousy  ; 
but   Buckingham's   death  a  few  months  later  left    Weston 
in  possession  of  the  full  confidence  of  the  King.     His  grasping 
ambition  had  grown  during  these  tedious  years  of  waiting 
and  of  hazardous  climbing  ;  and  greed  of  money  and  of  power 
soon  made  him  unpopular.     Under  his  administration  all 
Royal  bounty  was  checked  except  that  which  flowed  towards 
himself :   the  value  of  the  Royal  domains  was  enhanced  by 
exactions  from  others,  but  diminished    by  lavish  grants  to 
the  Lord    Treasurer.      The  expenditure  of  the  Crown  was 
curtailed,  but  that  of  Weston's  own  household  was  so  ex- 
travagant that  all  his  grasping  and  his  greed  could  not  suffice 
for  it.     He  feebly  imitated  the  pride  of  Buckingham,  without 
his  splendid  generosity  and  his  personal  attraction  :   he  had 
all  his  ambition,  but  only  a  small  portion  of  his  ability,  and 
nothing  of  his  audacity  and  courage.     He  helped  Charles  to 
economize  ;  but  he  pursued  his  economies  without  tact,  and 

•  History  of  liebellion,  i.   101.     Weston  was  created  Earl  of  Portland  in 
16H4,  about  a  year  before  his  death. 
-  Ibid.,  p.  104. 


iG35]  LAUD   AS   COMMISSIONED   OF   TEEASURY  41 

he  joined  to  them  unhmited  personal  cupidity.  He  checked 
the  expenditure  of  the  Crown  ;  but  under  him  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Treasury  had  nursed  discontent  in  every 
section  of  the  nation. 

The  Treasury  was  now  put  in  commission,  and  the  chief 
of  the  Lords  Commissioners  was  Laud — now  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  With  his  usual  zeal  and  passion  for  method 
and  detail,  Laud  threw  himself  into  the  work.  He  had 
already  his  hands  full  enough  with  the  government  of  the 
Church  and  with  the  business  of  the  High  Commission  Court. 
But  no  labour  came  amiss  to  the  indomitable  industry  of 
Laud  ;  and  with  all  the  zeal  of  a  novice  he  determined  that 
his  new  function  should  not  be  a  sinecure,  but  that  he  would 
introduce  new  order  and  economy  into  the  revenues  of  the 
Crown.  In  his  case  certainly  there  was  no  tincture  of 
personal  cupidity,  and  his  only  desire  was  to  make  his 
administration  at  once  economical  and  scrupulously  just. 
Unfortunately  for  him  these  aims  were  not  enough  to  secure 
for  it  popularity.  So  long  as  he  felt  his  own  aims  sincere 
and  his  purposes  unselfish,  Laud  was  the  last  man  to  think 
of  the  aspect  that  they  wore  to  the  eyes  of  others,  or  to  trouble 
himself  about  those  petty  concessions  to  individual  feelings 
which  often  help  to  ingratiate  even  acts  of  questionable 
rectitude  when  guided  by  tactful  policy.  He  had  no  mercy 
for  the  crooked  arts  of  those  who  were  less  conscientious  than 
himself,  and  it  was  characteristic  of  him  that  amid  his  zeal 
for  financial  rectitude  he  could  not  exclude  a  satisfaction 
in  undoing  some  of  the  work  of  his  predecessor,  whom  he 
had  long  recognized  as  a  personal  enemy,  of  whose  influence 
with  the  King  he  had  been  jealous,  and  whom  he  suspected 
as  of  Roman  Cathohc  tendencies,  and  a  concealed  traitor 
to  the  Church.  Strict  honesty  did  not  atone  for  his  own  lack 
of  tact.  Those  who  honestly  sought  for  relief  from  oppression 
found  Laud's  ears  open  to  their  complaints,  so  long  as  they 


42  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

urged  nothing  inconsistent  with  his  central  aim  of  economy ; 
but  such  gratitude  as  these  could  feel  weighed  lightly  in  the 
balance  of  popularity  to  a  minister  of  finance. 

Amid  the  pressure  of  the  great  burdens  that  now  accumu- 
lated upon  him,  Laud  was  wont  to  seek  for  a  spell  of  easy 
intercourse  amongst  his  neighbours  at  Croydon,  near  which 
lay  his  country  palace.  One  of  these  was  a  leading  London 
merchant,  named  Daniel  Harvey,  and  Laud  varied  his 
week-end  talks  with  Harvey  by  discussions  about  the  due 
encouragement  of  trade,  and  learned  from  him  how  much 
oppression  was  caused  by  petty  and  vexatious  regulations, 
which  brought  no  profit  to  the  Crown,  but  enhanced  the 
ill-gotten  gains  of  the  farmers  of  the  customs.  Amongst 
these  was  one  rule  in  particular  which  compelled  the  mer- 
chants to  unlade  even  their  heavy  goods  at  the  Custom 
House,  and  imposed  upon  them  vast  inconvenience  and 
expense,  with  no  gain  to  the  revenue.  Their  goods  were 
thus  delayed  at  the  caprice  of  the  wharfinger,  and  their 
market  was  often  lost.  The  Archbishop  pursued  the  subject, 
and  insisted  upon  knowing  the  whole  history  of  the  dispute, 
and  the  proceedings  relating  to  a  petition  of  the  merchants 
on  the  subject.  It  then  appeared  that  the  regulation  was 
made,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  other  farmers  of  the  customs, 
and  in  the  interests  of  one  who  was  the  late  Lord  Treasurer's 
favourite,  and  doubtless  recouped  him  for  his  partiality. 
Laud  asked  to  see  a  copy  of  the  petition,  and  was  referred  to 
a  young  lawyer  who  had  been  consulted  by  the  merchants, 
and  had  stated  their  case  to  the  late  Lord  Treasurer.  The 
young  lawyer,  he  was  told,  was  one  Hyde,  the  son-in-law  of 
Sir  Thomas  Aylesbury  ;  and  through  Aylesbur}^  Hyde  was 
summoned  to  an  interview  with  Laud  at  Lambeth.  The 
colloquy  between  the  young  lawyer,  already  versed  in  the 
ways  of  men,  who  had  sharpened  his  wits  by  constant  inter- 
course with  the  wits  of  the  day,  and  the  aged  Archbishop, 


ARCHBISHOP    LAUIJ. 

[From  (he  original  ly  Sir  Anthony  ]'andykf,  at  Lamheth.] 


1635]  ADVICE   FEOM   HYDE  43 

who,  in  a  long  life  of  ceaseless  industry,  had  never  learned 
the  first  alphabet  of  social  tact,  and  was,  in  essence,  but  the 
college  don  with  a  vast  fund  of  administrative  energy,  is  both 
dramatic  and  of  infinite  importance  in  the  life  of  Hyde, 
With  his  usual  candour.  Laud  expatiated  to  the  youth  of 
seven-and-twenty  on  his  own  ignorance  of  his  new  task  and 
of  his  zeal  to  master  it,  and  told  him  of  his  earnest  desire  to 
rectify  the  grievance  of  the  merchants.  Hyde  was  sufficiently 
versed  in  the  ways  of  the  world  to  recount  to  the  Archbishop 
"  two  or  three  passages  in  the  transactions  which  he  heard 
would  please  him  most  "  :  ^  he  recounted  the  arrogant 
reception  he  had  met  from  the  Lord  Treasurer,  and  how 
Hyde  had  made  bold  to  tell  him  that  "  if  the  farmers  of  the 
customs  were  weary  of  their  bargain,  he  would  help  the  King 
to  forty  thousand  pounds  a  year  above  the  rent  they  paid  "  : 
how  the  Lord  Treasurer  "  had  let  himself  out  into  an  indecent 
rage."  It  is  not  surprising  that  he  found  this  "  not  un- 
grateful to  the  Archbishop  "  ;  who,  thereupon,  "  required 
him  to  see  him  often."  Hyde  had  at  least  made  one  friend 
in  high  place  by  helping  him  to  that  he  wished,  and  in  the 
way  he  wished  it  ;  and  he  had  the  most  rare  quality  of  all — 
tact,  which  taught  him  not  to  press  the  advantage  unduly. 
With  that  naive  candour,  which  is  one  of  his  charms,  he 
takes  us  into  his  confidence,  and  tells  us  "  that  he  well  knew 
how  to  cultivate  these  advantages."  Henceforward  he 
became  Laud's  chosen  confidant. 

This  advanced  greatly  his  position  at  the  bar ;  and,  with 
pardonable  pride,  he  tells  us  how  "  he  enjoyed  a  very 
pleasant  and  a  plentiful  life,  having  a  competent  estate  of 
his  own,  and  living  much  above  the  rank  of  those  lawyers 
whose  business  was  only  to  be  rich  :  and  was  generally 
beloved  and  esteemed  by  most  persons  of  condition  and 
great  reputation."  ^    He  was  "  no  slave  to  his  profession, 

'  Life,  i.  30.  -  Lije,  i.  31. 


44  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

but  kept  both  his  friends  at  Court,  and  about  the  town,  by 
his  frequent  apphcation  and  constant  conversation."  They 
used  to  meet  at  dinner,  and  "  enjoyed  themselves  with 
wonderful  delight  and  public  reputation,  for  the  innocence, 
and  sharpness,  and  learning  of  their  conversation."  He 
never  supped  for  many  years,  that  he  might  have  that  time 
to  spare  for  polite  learning.  No  life  could  have  been  a  better 
preparation  for  the  great  part  that  he  was  yet  to  play  ;  and 
the  vein  of  happy  self-complacency  only  serves  to  let  us 
know  better  the  man  with  whom  we  hav^  to  deal.  It  was 
the  sort  of  self-complacency  that  breeds  heroism  when 
occasion  calls  for  it. 

One  thing  only  he  regretted — that  after  that  jQrst  circuit 
with  his  uncle,  the  Chief  Justice,  he  never  again  rode  the 
country  circuits.  He  considered  that  the  best  part  of  a 
lawyer's  hfe,  both  for  its  wholesome  exercise,  and  for  the 
intimate  knowledge  it  gave  of  all  classes  of  the  people.  To 
the  lack  of  the  first  perhaps  some  of  the  ill  health  of 
his  later  years  may  be  ascribed.  As  for  the  second,  Hyde 
did  his  best,  in  later  years,  to  supply  the  defect.  But 
strictly  professional  society  never,  either  now  or  in  his  later 
years,  had  much  charm  for  Hyde.  With  it  "  he  had  at  most 
formal  acquaintance,  and  little  familiarity."  ^  He  used 
"  seldom,  when  his  practice  was  at  the  highest,  so  much  as 
to  eat  in  the  hall,  without  which  no  man  ever  got  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  good  student."  Possibly  Hyde  did  not  feel  that 
the  society  there  conformed  to  his  rule  of  avoiding  the 
company  of  those  "  who  in  their  qualities  were  inferior,  or 
in  their  parts  not  much  superior  to  himself."  He  almost 
grudged  the  increase  of  practice  which  prevented  him  from 
assigning  "  so  much  time  as  he  had  used  to  do  to  his  beloved 
conversation." 

He  now  found  himself  noticed,  and  even  courted,  by 

'  Life,  i.  67. 


1635]  OTHER   GREAT   FRIENDS  45 

those  who  were  most  notable  in  their  age,  and  for  this  he 
was  obHged  to  the  countenance  of  the  Archbishop.  These 
more  imposing  figures  at  least  revealed  themselves  suf- 
ficiently to  the  young  lawyer  to  enable  him  to  draw  their 
portraits  with  unerring  insight.  He  received  the  courteous 
attention  of  the  Lord  Keeper  Coventry,  who  from  small 
beginnings  had,  by  profound  knowledge  and  consummate 
dexterity,  attained  the  highest  position  in  the  law  :  had 
known  how  to  elude  the  machinations  of  powerful  and 
unscrupulous  foes  :  had  insinuated  rather  than  expressed  his 
doubts  as  to  innovations  which  strained  the  Royal  preroga- 
tive, and  the  fatal  reaction  against  which  he  had  foresight 
to  predict,  though  too  cautious  to  arraign  its  cause :  who  had 
managed  to  combine  the  grace  of  the  courtier  with  a  natural 
simphcity  of  his  own  :  who  despised  dissimulation,  and  yet, 
without  raising  false  hopes,  could  dismiss  an  applicant  not 
unpleased  ;  and  who,  in  a  slippery  time,  "  stood  upon  his 
defence  without  making  desperate  sallies  against  growing 
mischiefs,"  and  thus  secured  to  himself  a  tenure  of  office 
unequalled  in  its  duration  ;  and  who,  withal,  was  "  a  man 
rather  exceedingly  liked,  than  passionately  beloved."  ^  Hyde 
found  a  good  reception  with  Coventry's  personal  enemy,  the 
Lord  Privy  Seal,  Lord  Manchester,  who,  a  younger  son, 
had  risen  through  a  long  and  varying  succession  of  dignities, 
and  whose  known  wisdom,  long  experience,  and  confessed 
gravity  and  abihty  were  weighed  down  only  by  that  cupidity, 
which  his  means,  too  narrow  for  his  great  position,  made 
him  too  sedulous  to  satisfy ;  and  who  had  "  ballast  enough 
for  sails  filled  by  the  wind  of  the  popularity  "  earned  by  his 
indubitable  zeal  for  Protestantism  and  his  unquestioned 
loyalty.  He  found  a  ready  familiarity  from  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  the  elder  of  that  "  in- 
comparable pair  of  brethren,"  who  have  the  proud  boast  of 

'  History  of  Rebellion,  i.  100 


46  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

being  permitted  to  be  Shakespeare's  patrons. ^  He  was 
now  "  the  most  universally  loved  and  esteemed  of  any  man 
of  that  age,"  ^  and  in  his  descent  as  well  as  his  personal 
qualities  he  epitomizes  much  of  the  picturesque  romance 
of  the  age.  He  was  the  lavish  patron  of  literature  and  art, 
with  no  mean  literary  instinct  of  his  own  :  magnificent  at 
once  in  the  splendid  pomp  of  his  life,  and  in  his  generosity  : 
a  finished  courtier,  yet  scorning  the  favours  of  the  Court : 
unrestrained  alike  in  his  pride  of  independence  and  in 
those  "  pleasant  vices "  which  might  be  indulged  with 
no  tincture  of  avarice  or  meanness.  "  Never  man  was 
planted  in  a  Court  that  was  fitter  for  that  soil,  or  brought 
better  qualities  with  him  to  purify  that  air,"  is  the  verdict 
of  such  a  stern  moralist  as  Hyde.  It  was  a  misfortune  for 
that  Court  that  he  died  in  1630,  and  left  his  title  and  estates 
to  his  younger  brother,  a  man  of  very  different  calibre.^ 
The  latter  had  no  pretension  to  intellectual  gifts,  but  was 
rather  the  buoyant  sportsman,  whose  learning  was  chiefly  in 
horses  and  in  dogs.  It  was  a  curiously  misplaced  ambition 
that  made  him  an  unsuccessful  candidate  against  Laud,  to 
succeed  his  brother  as  Chancellor  of  Oxford — a  dignity  which 
he  obtained  later  as  the  nominee  of  Cromwell.  Another  of 
the  grandees  of  the  Court,  now  friendly  to  Hyde,  and  in 
after-years  so  often  involved  in  his  fortunes,  was  Henry 

'  William  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  was  born  in  1580,  and  was  the 
son  of  Mary,  sister  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney — Spenser's 

i'  Urania,  sister  unto  Astrophel." 

He  fulfilled  in  himself  the  promise  of  his  descent ;  and  to  a  dignified 
presence  added  consummate  bravery  and  marvellous  intellectual  force. 

^  History  of  Rebellion,  i.  120. 

^  Philip  Herbert,  the  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  was  born  in 
1584,  and  early  gained  the  special  favour  of  King  James.  He  was  created 
Earl  of  Montgomery  in  1620,  and  succeeded,  without  equal  grounds,  to  much 
of  his  brother's  popularity.  By  waywardness,  rather  than  any  special 
divergence  on  political  principles,  he  became  estranged  from  the  Court ; 
and  various  petty  ties  of  personal  friendship,  as  well  as  the  mastering  desire 
to  secure  the  safety  of  Wilton  and  all  its  treasures,  confirmed  him  later  in 
his  allegiance  to  the  Parliament.     He  died  in  1050. 


1635]  STRAFFORD  47 

Rich,  the  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  created  Lord 
Kensington  and  Earl  of  Holland.  His  character  will  reveal 
itself  in  later  incidents. 

Such  patronage  won  for  the  young  lawyer  peculiar 
attention  in  the  Courts,  and,  various  as  were  his  interests, 
he  applied  himself  sufficiently  to  his  profession  to  make  his 
success  in  it  secure.  Fortune  seemed  to  smile  kindly  on  his 
life  ;  and  he  was  dexterous  enough  to  avoid  those  enmities 
in  which  the  favour  of  men  who  belonged  to  very  different 
factions  at  Court  might  easily  have  involved  him. 

It  does  not  follow  that  Hyde  was  satisfied  with  the 
existing  state  of  the  political  world.  There  is  one  outstanding 
name  which  does  not  emerge  in  his  account  of  his  earlier 
relations  to  those  in  high  office,  and  it  is  just  the  name  which 
stood  higher  than  all  others.  There  were  few  of  the  great 
with  whom  Hyde  had  not  some  tie  of  friendly  patronage, 
or  at  least  some  shght  acquaintanceship  ;  but  no  record 
remains  of  any  association  of  his  with  the  Earl  of  Strafford. 
The  omission  of  that  name  from  Hyde's  catalogue  of  the 
leading  men  of  that  day  is  significant.  Across  the  troublous 
period  that  followed  we  look  back  on  Strafford's  as  the  one 
outstanding  personality.  Of  all  the  seeming  statesmen,  he 
was  the  only  man  who  had  what  was,  at  least,  a  consistent 
and  courageous  scheme  of  government.  A  few  years  later 
we  shall  hear  Hyde's  deliberate  and  balanced  verdict  on  his 
work.  But  at  this  eariier  period,  although  Strafford  was 
the  central  figure,  Hyde  evidently  hesitates  to  sketch  even 
the  outUnes  of  that  figure,  or  to  assign  to  him  his  part  in  the 
working  of  the  government  machine.  It  is  no  part  of  our 
task  to  discuss  in  detail  or  to  attempt  to  investigate  fully 
the  merits  and  defects  of  the  great  minister  whose  task  was 
almost  over  before  Hyde's  political  career  began.  But  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  in  the  permanent  elements  of  foresight 
and  unfaltering  courage,  the  genius  of  Strafford  dwarfs  all 


48  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

his  contemporaries,  and  all  those,  save  one,  who  were  actors 
in  the  great  drama  that  was  to  follow.  He  failed,  but  he  failed 
largely  because  he  came  too  late,  and  because  he  fought  under 
impossible  conditions.  The  sixteenth  century  had  nursed 
an  energy  and  an  enterprise  that  could  not  be  confined 
within  the  trammels  of  arbitrary  rule  ;  and  the  reign  of 
James  had  taught  the  nation  that  their  salvation  was  not 
to  be  in  the  Monarchy.  Even  then,  a  monarch,  steadfast 
in  purpose,  and  unflinching  in  the  assertion  of  his  authority, 
might  have  given  to  Strafford  the  opportunity  he  desired  of 
working  out  a  great  future  for  the  nation,  under  a  preponder- 
ating monarchical  power,  and  with  an  aristocracy  tamed  and 
disciplined  to  other  work  than  the  promotion  of  their  own 
sectional  power,  and  their  own  swollen  possessions.  Again 
and  again,  in  later  generations,  the  nation — or  some  amongst 
its  leaders — was  to  swing  back  to  that  ideal,  which  sought 
to  curb  the  power  of  a  selfish  oligarchy,  intent  only  on 
exploiting  the  growth  of  national  prosperity  for  its  own 
advantage.  But  Strafford  was  the  last  who  reahzed  the  idea 
fully,  who  laid  his  plans  consistently,  and  who,  so  far  as  his 
own  efforts  were  concerned,  won  a  victory  which  was 
sacrificed  only  by  the  tortuous  methods  and  the  vacillating 
temper  of  a  King,  in  whose  composition  nature  had  not 
added  the  courage  of  manly  candour  to  a  narrow-minded 
sincerity  of  purpose,  or  impulsive  energy  to  moral  rectitude 
and  to  no  small  share  of  personal  dignity  and  courage. 

But  men  do  not,  with  their  contemporaries,  completely 
gauge  the  full  bearing  of  deep-laid  schemes  and  far-reaching 
principles  :  least  of  all  was  it  possible  for  the  young  lawyer 
under  thirty  years  of  age  to  do  so.  It  was  much  that  Hyde 
could,  in  the  closing  scene,  see  the  loftiness  of  Strafford's 
character,  and  recognize  the  consummate  dignity  which  he 
showed  in  the  tragic  end  of  his  life.  At  present,  when 
Strafford  was  at  the  height  of  his  power,  an  observer,  however 


1635]  PEACE   AND   PROSrERITY  49 

acute,  could  only  judge  his  actions  by  his  impression  of  their 
effect  upon  the  nation  at  large.  Unquestionably,  so  far  as 
Hyde  was  concerned,  his  verdict  on  the  course  which  Straiford 
now  pursued  was  an  adverse  one. 

There  was  much  in  the  position  of  the  nation  at  that  time 
which  was  pleasing  to  Hyde,  perhaps  even  more  in  the 
retrospect  of  later  years  than  it  seemed  at  the  moment.  The 
wasteful  and  ill-considered  wars  in  which  Buckingham  had 
involved  his  master  were  now  ended,  and  the  kingdom 
enjoyed  a  profound  peace,  the  more  noticeable  because  of 
the  universal  clash  of  arms  on  the  continent.  Scotland, 
England's  enemy  of  many  generations,  was  now  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  peace  which  it  had  never  known.  Ireland, 
after  a  glut  of  rebellion,  was  now  firmly  administered,  and 
instead  of  being  a  sponge,  drawing  endless  expenditure,  was 
turned  into  a  good  source  of  commercial  revenue.  Our 
colonies  were  rapidly  increasing,  and  English  capital  and 
enterprise  found  there  a  field  of  infinite  promise.  Our 
commerce  was  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  we  held 
almost  undisputed  command  on  the  high  seas.  The  name 
of  England  was  feared  and  respected  in  every  corner  of 
Europe.  There  was  a  very  wantonness  of  prosperity  at 
home.  A  wealthy  and  luxurious  aristocracy  seemed  ready 
to  leave  higher  politics  alone,  so  long  as  they  enjoyed  undis- 
puted sway  over  a  docile  crowd  of  unconsidered  men,  and 
were  allowed,  by  lavish  grants  from  the  Crown,  and  by  the 
exercise  of  uncontrolled  privileges,  to  increase  the  revenues 
which  they  wasted  in  extravagant  display.  The  mass  of  the 
people  had  new  fields  of  industry,  and  troubled  themselves 
little  about  theories  of  political  power. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  fears  were  aroused  on  every  side, 
by  new  and  unaccustomed  methods  of  administration  ;  and 
these  were  most  felt  and  most  sharply  criticized  by  the  more 
wise  and  thoughtful  part  of  the  nation.     A  strong  current 

VOL.  I.  E 


50  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

of  alarm  set  against  vaguely  threatened,  extensions  of  the 
Eoyal  prerogative.  The  wealthy  aristocracy  found  their 
revenues  curtailed  by  revivals  of  the  forest  laws,  and  by 
fines  exacted  upon  estates  which  they  had  acquired  by 
questionable  means,  and  to  which  they  had  no  very  assured 
titles.  The  equality  of  all  ranks  before  the  law,  administered 
by  an  ever-encroaching  prerogative,  had  no  great  charm  for 
a  nation  in  which  the  aristocratic  principle  was  deeply 
planted.  The  trading  classes  measured  their  verdict  on  the 
Government,  not  by  their  new  gains,  but  by  the  new  taxes 
imposed.  So  long  as  tonnage  and  poundage,  and  the  new 
tax  of  ship-money,  were  levied  only  on  the  pretext  of  special 
exigency,  they  could  be  endured  ;  but  when,  after  the  famous 
test  case  of  Hampden  had  been  tried,  the  law  courts  were 
induced  to  give  them  a  sanction,  based  rather  upon  political 
than  legal  grounds,  these  new  exactions  became  doubly 
odious  and  formidable.  They  were  now  felt  to  involve  a 
tampering  with  the  chief  security  of  property — the  unsullied 
purity  of  legal  decisions.  The  measured  and  settled  pro- 
cedure of  the  law  courts  was  invaded  by  maxims  borrowed 
from  reasons  of  State,  liable  to  be  strained  by  the  ambitions 
of  the  executive  ;  and  this  was  especially  dangerous  at  a 
time  when  much  of  the  intellectual  energy  of  the  nation  was 
occupied  in  the  careful  investigation  of  constitutional  principle. 
Under  the  wise  polity  of  former  reigns,  however  high  the 
prerogative  had  been  strained,  it  had  never  called  to  its 
aid  the  devices  of  the  lawyers,  or  made  of  the  law-courts 
workshops  where  new  chains  for  liberty  might  be  forged. 
Hyde  was  lawyer  enough  to  see  the  danger,  and  man  of  the 
world  enough  to  see  how  little  reliance  was  to  be  placed  upon 
the  new  agents  whom  the  prerogative  was  calling  to  its  aid. 
In  Noy,  the  Attorney-General,  and  Finch,  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice,  he  recognized  two  men  who  were  precisely  of  the 
type  into  which  he  saw  a  danger  that  his  own  profession 


1636]  ABUSES   OF  POWER  51 

might  degenerate — narrow,  pedantic,  and  incapable  of 
tempering  the  niceties  of  legal  disputation  with  the  larger 
principles  of  policy.  The  Court  of  High  Commission  and 
the  Star  Chamber  had  long  exercised  unbridled  jurisdiction, 
and  had  enforced  arbitrary  decrees,  dealing  with  questions 
which  lay  outside  the  sphere  of  the  ordinary  courts.  In 
former  times  they  had  given  rough  and  ready  decisions,  and 
had  heard  causes  in  secret ;  but  the  criticism  upon  their 
action  had  been  the  less  acrimonious  just  because  they  had 
not  attempted  any  formality  of  procedure.  Now  the  very 
elaboration  of  process  lent  itself  to  new  criticism,  and  excited 
new  alarm.  Discussion  and  argument  and  comment  swelled 
enormously  the  tide  of  antipathy.  Drastic  and  summary 
methods  were  felt  only  by  the  handful  of  people  affected  : 
the  elaboration  of  formal  process  made  the  whole  nation 
uneasy.  Strafford's  was  the  strong  brain  and  the  forcible 
hand  in  the  background  ;  he  had  little  taste  for  the  subtleties 
of  legal  process.  His  influence  was  rather  felt  than  seen. 
But  Laud's  was  the  narrower  brain,  the  equally  courageous 
heart,  and  the  often  blundering  and  tactless  method  which 
was  more  in  evidence.  And  Hyde's  feeling  of  profound 
respect  and  ungrudging  admiration  for  Laud's  obvious 
sincerity  did  not  blind  him  to  Laud's  fatal  errors. 

With  Laud's  main  aims — which  were  first  shown  in  his 
University  administration,  where  he  introduced  order  out 
of  chaos,  discipline  in  place  of  anarchy,  a  stately  comeliness 
in  place  of  slovenly  boorishness,  sober  scholarship  in  place 
of  the  restless  fanaticism  of  disputation,  and  which  were 
afterwards  expanded  in  the  larger  sphere  of  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  statesmanship — Hyde  had  the  fullest  sympathy. 
He  detested  as  cordially  as  Laud  the  uncouth  fashions  of  the 
puritan,  and  desired  as  eagerly  as  he  the  restfuluess  of  control, 
the  decencies  of  worship,  and  the  peacefulness  of  sound  order 
in    religious    ritual.      In    Strafford,    Laud   had    found    an 


52  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

all-powerful  ally,  united  to  himself  in  his  ecclesiastical  ideals, 
and  finding  in  these  a  convenient  adjunct  to  his  own  great 
scheme  of  sound  administrative  discipline  both  in  Church 
and  State.  In  Hyde,  he  had  a  useful  adviser,  who  sympa- 
thized with  his  churchmanship,  but  doubted  his  scheme  of 
resting  it  upon  a  strained  prerogative,  and  whose  perception 
of  the  fatal  errors  in  Laud's  methods,  and  the  danger  of  his 
hopeless  lack  of  tact,  prompted  him  from  time  to  time  to 
add  to  his  advice  some  much-needed  warnings. 

"  The  greatest  want  the  Archbishop  had,"  says  Hyde,^ 
"  was  of  a  true  friend,  who  would  seasonably  tell  him  of  his 
infirmities,  and  what  people  said  of  him."  Laud  was  by 
nature  too  sincere  not  to  be  conscious  of  the  want :  and  even 
his  fiery  temper,  and  the  arrogancy  of  manner  which  was 
perhaps  the  necessary  consequence  of  his  origin  and  his  early 
training,  did  not  make  him  resent  the  plain  speaking  of  a 
candid  friend.  It  was  a  hard  part  for  the  young  lawyer  to 
assume ;  but  Hyde  knew  how  to  discharge  it  with  boldness, 
yet  with  needful  prudence.  The  picture  Hyde  gives  us  of 
one  such  scene  is  drawn  with  all  his  consummate  art,  and 
admirably  depicts  the  dexterity  of  the  younger  man,  and 
the  lamentable  defects,  as  well  as  the  essential  humility  and 
candour,  of  the  older  one.  It  was  on  his  return  from  the 
country  for  Michaelmas  Term  that  Hyde  found  the  fit 
occasion.  Laud  was  walking  in  the  gardens  of  Lambeth, 
which  he  loved  so  well,  and  where  in  the  springtime  he  used 
to  listen  to  the  nightingale  and  the  thrush.  He  asked  Hyde, 
"  What  good  news  in  the  country  ?  "  and  was  answered, 
"  There  was  none  good  ;  and  (which  troubled  Hyde  most) 
many  people  spoke  extreme  ill  of  his  Grace,  as  the  cause  of 
all  that  was  amiss."  Laud  said  he  was  sorry  for  it,  but 
that  he  would  not  give  over  serving  the  King  and  the  Church 
to  please  the  people.     Hyde  told  him,  "  He  thought  he  need 

'  Lije,  i.  69. 


1636]  DEFECTS   OP  LAUD'S   METHODS  53 

not  lessen  his  zeal  for  either  ;  and  that  it  grieved  him  to 
find  persons  of  the  best  condition,  and  who  loved  both  King 
and  Church,  exceedingly  indevoted  to  him,  complaining  of 
his  manner  of  treating  them,  when  they  had  occasion  to 
resort  to  him,  it  may  be,  for  his  directions."  He  then 
recounted  a  particular  instance,  where  two  persons  of  "  the 
most  interest  and  credit  in  Wiltshire,"  had  reason  to  complain 
of  the  manner  in  which  Laud  alone,  of  all  the  members  of  the 
Council  Board,  had  treated  them  cavalierly.  One  of  them 
had  gone  next  morning  to  Lambeth  to  learn  the  cause,  and 
to  endeavour  to  remove  it ;  but  when,  after  long  delay,  ho 
had  been  admitted,  the  Archbishop,  "  scarce  hearing  him, 
sharply  answered  him,  that  '  he  had  no  leisure  for  compli- 
ments.' "  Laud  took  the  rebuke  in  good  part,  and  heard 
the  story  very  patiently,  and  said  with  evident  trouble 
that  "  he  was  very  unfortunate  to  be  so  ill  understood  ;  that 
he  meant  very  well."  He  remembered  the  incident,  but 
the  sharpness  of  his  diction  at  the  Council  Board  was  un- 
intentional and  due  to  the  "  imperfection  he  had  by  nature, 
which  often  troubled  him."  When  the  visitor  came  to 
Lambeth,  he  had  been  engaged  in  an  affair  of  importance, 
had  "  received  him  very  kindly,  as  he  thought,"  but  being 
troubled  with  his  elaborate  ceremony  in  place  of  business, 
told  him  "  that  he  had  no  time  for  compliments."  He 
regretted  the  incident ;  but  "  if  his  integrity  and  uprightness, 
which  never  should  be  liable  to  reproach,  could  not  be 
strong  enough  to  preserve  him,  he  must  submit  to  God's 
pleasure." 

Hyde  was  not  yet  prepared  to  spare  him.  He  told  the 
Archbishop  that  his  own  story  showed  how  much  reason 
the  gentleman  had  to  be  offended,  and  that  he  "  did  exceed- 
ingly wish  that  he  would  more  reserve  his  passion  to  all 
persons,  how  faulty  soever  ;  and  that  he  would  treat  persons 
of  honour  and  quality  and   interest  in  their  country,  with 


54  WIDENING   EXPEEIENCES  [chap,  ii 

more   courtesy   and   condescension."    Laud   was   still   not 
offended. 

"  Smiling,  he  said  '  that  he  could  only  undertake 
for  his  heart  ;  that  he  had  very  good  meaning  :  for  his 
tongue  he  could  not  undertake  that  he  would  not  sometimes 
speak  more  heartily  and  sharply  than  he  should  do  (which 
oftentimes  he  was  very  sorry  and  reprehended  himself  for), 
and  in  a  tune  which  might  be  liable  to  misinterpretation 
with  them  who  were  not  very  well  acquainted  with  him,  and 
so  knew  not  that  it  was  an  infirmity  which  his  nature  and 
education  had  so  rooted  in  him,  that  it  was  in  vain  to  con- 
tend against  it.'  '  In  the  state  and  distance  he  kept  with 
men,  he  thought  it  was  not  more  than  was  suitable  to  the 
place  and  degree  he  held  in  the  Church  and  State.' " 

Most  men,  who  recognized  their  own  defects  so  well  as 
Laud,  would  have  gone  half-way  to  curing  them;  but  Laud's 
own  verdict  on  himself  was  the  true  one.  The  defects  of  his 
temper  and  education  were  too  deep-seated  to  be  cured. 
None  the  less,  it  says  as  much  for  the  aged  dignitary  as  for 
his  youthful  Mentor,  that  the  conversation  sowed  no  seeds 
of  ill  will. 

"  After  this  free  discourse,  Mr.  Hyde  ever  found  himself 
more  graciously  received  by  him,  and  treated  with  more 
familiarity  ;  upon  which  he  always  concluded,  that  if  the 
Archbishop  had  had  any  true  friend,  who  would,  in  proper 
seasons,  have  dealt  frankly  with  him  in  the  most  important 
matters,  and  wherein  the  errors  were  like  to  be  found  most 
penal,  he  would  not  only  have  received  it  very  well,  but 
have  profited  himself  by  it." 

Hyde  recognized  the  cause  with  ample  perspicacity. 

"  It  is,"  he  adds  in  memorable  words,  "  the  misfortune 
of  most  persons  of  that  education  (how  worthy  soever)  that 
they  have  rarely  friendship  with  men  above  their  own  con- 
dition, and  that,  their  ascent  being  commonly  sudden  from 


1 


1636]  HYDE'S  CANDID   ADVICE  55 

low  to  high,  they  have  afterwards  rather  dependants  than 
friends,  and  are  still  deceived  by  keeping  somewhat  in 
reserve  to  themselves  even  from  those  with  whom  they 
seem  most  openly  to  communicate  ;  and,  which  is  worse, 
receive  for  the  most  part  their  informations  and  advertise- 
ments from  clergymen,  who  understand  the  least,  and  take 
the  worst  measure  of  human  affairs,  of  all  mankind  that 
can  write  and  read." 


"  In  the  most  important  matters,  and  wherein  the  errors 
were  hke  to  be  most  penal,"  Hyde  could  advise  his  old  friend 
about  his  tactlessness  and  discourtesy  ;  but  it  was  not 
tactlessness  and  discourtesy  alone  in  which  he  saw  that 
Laud  committed  grievous  errors,  "  like  to  be  most  penal," 
and  for  which  a  sterner  judge  and  a  more  weighty  friend 
than  the  young  lawyer  was  required.  We  know  from  Hyde 
himself,  that  he  saw  how  triumphs  for  the  Church  were 
dearly  bought  if  accompanied  by  punishments,  inflicted  with 
Laud's  assent  and  approval,  which  shocked  the  feelings  of 
the  nation.  The  ordinary  penal  code  of  that  day  was,  of 
course,  admittedly  drastic  and  barbarous  in  our  eyes  ;  but, 
with  all  allowance  for  this,  it  w^as  not  crime  only,  it  was 
fatuous  folly,  to  condemn  to  the  pillory  and  ear-cropping 
men  like  Prynne  and  Bastwick  and  Burton ;  graceless 
fanatics,  it  may  be,  but  none  the  less,  educated  men,  whose 
delinquencies,  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  most  zealous  Church- 
man, deserved  no  such  barbarous  treatment,  and  whose 
torture  and  degradation  roused  the  indignation  of  their 
sympathizers,  and  gave  cause  for  doubt  and  disgust  even 
to  many  of  the  warm  supporters  of  the  Church.  Well  might 
Hyde  say,  in  a  condemnation  far  graver  than  his  warnings 
about  tactless  arrogance  or  discourtesy,  "  Every  profession, 
with  anger  and  indignation  enough,  thought  their  education 
and  degrees  and  quality  would  have  secured  them  from  such 
infamous  judgments,  and  treasured  up  wrath  for  the  time 


56  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

to  come." '  We  may  admit  that  Laud's  chief  and  sincere 
desire  was  to  secure  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  to  provide 
for  her  a  seemly  ritual.  But  however  earnest  his  zeal,  the 
intrusion  of  the  drastic  methods  of  the  pillory  and  the 
executioner's  knife  into  the  arena  of  religious  disputes 
made  that  zeal  an  ally  which  even  a  secular  minister, 
engaged  in  the  rougher  task  of  strengthening  the  royal 
prerogative  in  civil  matters,  might  have  seen  cause  to  dread. 
But  there  was  another  and  a  more  fatal  error  in  Laud's 
scheme  of  government,  which  aroused  even  greater  animosity, 
and  deeply  involved  the  Church  in  the  prevailing  under- 
current of  discontent,  and  which  no  honesty  of  administra- 
tion and  no  sincerity  of  aim  could  atone  for.  By  a  strange 
perversion  of  judgment — the  result  of  Laud's  exaggerated 
mediaevalism,  which  counted  for  a  good  deal  in  his  general 
policy — he  conceived  the  idea  of  restoring  to  the  Church  its 
old  power  in  the  State,  when  great  churchmen  were  also  the 
leading  statesmen  of  England.  It  was  the  scheme  of  a 
visionary,  blind  to  what  was  passing  round  him.  The  days 
of  Becket,  and  Langton,  and  Wykeham,  and  Wolsey  were 
buried  in  the  past,  and  never  could  be  restored.  But  Laud 
cherished  the  idea  that  the  leaders  of  the  Church  might  again 
lay  their  hands  upon  the  administration  of  the  State,  and  be, 
not  the  allies,  but  the  supreme  rulers  of  secular  policy.  It 
was  in  this  spirit  that  he  accepted  for  himself  a  place  in  the 
management  of  the  Treasury,  and  became  one  of  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  Admiralty.  By  a  strange  delusion,  he 
fancied  that  mere  honesty  of  purpose  could  disarm  the  envy 
which  such  action  aroused.  He  strove  to  make  himself  no 
mere  formal  coadjutor,  but  to  penetrate  into  every  detail  of 
administration.  His  boundless  industry  served  only  to 
weaken  his  influence  as  the  leader  of  the  Church,  and  in  a 
corrupt  age  his  very  sincerity  of  purpose  enhanced  the  ill- 

'  Hist,  of  Rebellion,  i.  197. 


1636]  JUXON   AS  LORD   TREASURER  57 

will  aroused  by  his  interference  in  secular  business.  In 
1636,  he  fancied  that  he  had  won  a  lasting  triumph  for  the 
Church  when  he  obtained  the  nomination  of  his  intimate 
friend  Juxon,  the  Bishop  of  London,  as  Lord  Treasurer. 
Juxon  brought  to  the  task  an  industry  and  an  unselfish 
purity  of  administration  equal  to  his  own  :  but  the  jealousy 
was  enormously  increased.  "  Now,"  Laud  says,  in  his  Diary y 
"  if  the  Church  will  not  hold  themselves  under  God,  I  can  do 
no  more."  He  fancied  that  he  had  secured  the  indubitable 
supremacy  of  the  Church  :  in  fact,  he  involved  her  in  stormy 
waters,  in  which  she  was  soon  to  be  submerged.  He  presently 
attempted  the  same  thing  in  Scotland,  with  equally  fatal 
results.  To  Strafford,  as  well  as  to  Hyde,  the  error  must 
have  been  apparent  enough. 

Hyde  was  now  forced  to  form  his  opinions  on  the  world 
of  politics  around  him ;  and  unquestionably  he  found  much 
amiss  in  its  present  state.  Looking  back  in  after-years, 
Hyde  might  condemn  the  impatience  of  an  opposition  which 
nursed  what  then  seemed  factious  discontent  in  the  midst 
of  unprecedented  prosperity.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  himself,  with  a  steady  loyalty  to  the  estabhshed 
constitution,  with  an  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  Church, 
and  with  a  hatred  of  any  tendency  to  revolution,  was  never- 
theless imbued  with  some  dislike  of  the  existing  regime, 
some  suspicion  of  its  wisdom,  and  some  dread  of  its  tendency 
to  strain  the  royal  prerogative  unduly.  His  opinions  were 
crystallizing,  as  they  must  crystallize  with  a  man  whose  life 
and  work  were  developing,  and  before  whom  there  lay  the 
promise  of  a  wide  sphere  of  influence.  His  own  lines  seemed 
to  lie  in  pleasant  places.  He  was  esteemed  by  the  great  and 
powerful,  and  his  home  was  one  of  exceptional  happiness. 
His  business  was  rapidly  increasing,  and  he  felt  attracted 
to  the  active  pursuit  of  his  profession  with  all  the  pleasure 
that  successful  effort  brings  in  its  train.     He  gives  us  a 


58  WIDENING  EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

picture  of  his  own  position,  and  a  retrospect  of  his  career 
so  far,  which  is  characteristic  at  once  in  its  candour  and  in 
its  complacency. 

"  Under  this  universal  acquaintance  and  general  accepta- 
tion," he  tells  us,  "  Mr.  Hyde  led  for  many  years  as  cheerful 
and  pleasant  a  life  as  any  man  did  enjoy,  as  long  as  the 
kingdom  took  any  pleasure  in  itself.  His  practice  grew 
every  day  as  much  as  he  wished,  and  would  have  been  much 
more  if  he  had  wished  it ;  by  which  he  not  only  supported 
his  expense,  greater  much  than  men  of  his  rank  and  pretences 
used  to  make,  but  increased  his  estate  by  some  convenient 
purchases  of  land  adjoining  to  his  other  :  and  he  grew  so 
much  in  love  with  business  and  practice  that  he  gave  up  his 
whole  heart  to  it ;  resolving,  by  a  course  of  severe  study, 
to  recover  the  time  he  had  lost  upon  less  profitable  learning, 
and  to  intend  nothing  else,  but  to  reap  all  those  benefits  to 
which  that  profession  could  carry  him,  and  to  the  pursuing 
whereof  he  had  so  many  and  so  unusual  encouragements  ; 
and  towards  which  it  was  not  the  least  that  God  had  blessed 
him  with  an  excellent  wife,  who  perfectly  resigned  herself 
to  him,  and  who  then  had  brought  him,  before  any  troubles 
in  the  kingdom,  three  sons  and  a  daughter,  which  he  then 
and  ever  looked  upon  as  his  greatest  blessing  and 
consolation." 

An  open  path  to  smooth  and  secure  professional  success  ; 
an  ample  competence  ;  domestic  comfort ;  an  acceptance 
in  the  choicest  social  circles  that  satisfied  his  human  interest, 
made  still  more  pleasant  by  his  possession  of  a  vein  of  gentle 
self-complacency — these  seemed  now  the  prospect  before 
Hyde.  Far  as  he  is  removed  above  the  social,  moral,  and 
intellectual  plane  of  Pepys,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize 
a  quaint  similarity  in  the  self-congratulation  with  which 
both  men  regard  their  own  careers,  as  they  find  themselves 
gradually  advancing  by  sure  and  cautious  steps  to  a  con- 
sideration amidst  the  more  imposing  figures  round  them. 
The  initial  resemblance  adds  piquancy  to  the  after-contrast. 


1636]  DANGERS   OF   HYDE'S   POSITION  59 

Pepys  played,  his  little  rule  of  sprightly  industry,  of  alert 
assurance,  and  of  shrewd  competence,  consistently  to  the 
end.  Hyde,  in  spite  of  all  the  traits  of  early  superficial 
likeness,  was  cast  in  heroic  mould,  and  ordained  to  play  a 
foremost  part  in  a  tragedy  for  all  time.  With  him  the  petty 
aims  of  self-advancement  gradually  disappeared,  as  heavy 
burdens  crowded  on  him  ;  the  garment  of  self-complacency 
fell  away  from  him,  as  he  laboured  to  reach  a  haven  after  a 
long  storm,  and  strove  to  reconstruct  the  monarchy  after 
its  disasters  ;  and  when  great  office  came,  it  had  lost  for 
him  all  its  allurements. 

Already  he  discerned  that  he  was  gaining  his  experience 
even  now  in  a  dangerous  school.  In  later  life  he  was,  he 
tells  us, 

"  often  wont  to  say  that  when  he  reflected  upon  him- 
self and  his  past  actions,  he  had  much  more  cause  to  be 
terrified  upon  the  reflection  than  the  man  had  who  viewed 
Rochester  Bridge  in  the  morning  that  it  was  broken,  and 
which  he  had  galloped  over  in  the  night  ;  that  he  had  passed 
over  more  precipices  than  the  other  had  done,  for  many 
nights  and  days,  and  some  years  together  ;  from  which 
nothing  but  the  immediate  hand  of  God  could  have  preserved 
him." 

His  associates  had  not  all  been  of  the  type  of  Falk- 
land and  of  Selden.  He  had  mingled  with  the  licence 
of  Alsatia,  and  knew  the  rough  soldiers  of  fortune  in  their 
cups  and  over  the  gaming-table.  Scenes  of  reckless  ex- 
travagance and  unrestrained  debauchery  had  passed  before 
his  eyes.  But  "  he  had,  by  God's  immediate  blessing,  dis- 
entangled himself  from  these  labyrinths  (his  nature  and 
inclination  disposing  him  rather  to  pass  through  those 
dissolute  quarters  than  to  make  any  stay  in  them),  and  was 
enough  composed  against  any  extravagant  excursions." 
Severe  men,  he  confesses,  thought  him  for  a  time  a  "  person 


60  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

of  more  licence  than  in  truth  he  was."  Hyde  was,  in  fact, 
neither  the  victim  of  midue  self-laudation  nor  of  morbid 
self-abasement.  From  the  first  he  steered  his  bark  through 
the  dangerous  eddies  with  consummate  skill ;  and  his  ex- 
periences were  of  untold  value  to  him  in  his  after-Hfe.  He 
recognized  his  own  infirmities,  but  he  had  self-knowledge 
enough  to  measure  them  duly;  "  by  a  providential  mercy 
they  were  seasonably  restrained  from  growing  into  vices, 
at  least  into  any  that  were  habitual."  He  had  ambition 
enough  "  to  raise  his  spirit  to  great  designs  of  raising  himself, 
but  not  to  transport  him  to  endeavour  it  by  any  crooked  and 
indirect  means."  He  could  proudly  boast  that  "  he  was 
never  suspected  to  flatter  the  greatest  men,  or  in  the  least 
degree  to  dissemble  his  own  opinions  or  thoughts."  He 
does  not  forget  to  confess  that  "  he  indulged  his  palate  very 
much,  and  took  even  some  delight  in  eating  and  drinking 
well,  but  without  any  approach  to  luxury,  and,  in  truth, 
rather  discoursed  like  an  epicure  than  was  one  "  ;  and  in 
later  years,  he  learned  in  the  school  of  adversity  to  know 
what  it  was  often  to  go  without  a  meal.  "  He  had  a  fancy 
sharp  and  luxuriant ;  but  so  carefully  cultivated  and  strictly 
guarded  that  he  never  was  heard  to  speak  a  loose  or  a  profane 
word  :  which  he  imputed  to  the  chastity  of  the  persons 
where  his  conversation  usually  was,  where  that  sort  of  wit 
was  religiously  detested."  That  was  no  mean  boast  for  one 
who  knew  the  courtiers  of  Charles  I.  and  was  the  intimate 
associate  of  his  successor. 

He  knew  his  failings  of  temper  as  well  as  of  temperament. 

"  He  was  in  his  nature,"  so  he  confesses,  "  inclined  to 
pride  and  passion,  and  to  a  humour  between  wrangling  and 
disputing  very  troublesome,  which  good  company  in  a  short 
time  so  much  reformed  and  mastered,  that  no  man  was  more 
affable  and  courteous  to  all  kind  of  persons  :  and  they  who 
knew  the  great  infirmity  of  his  whole  family,  which  abounded 


1636]  SELF-CHARACTERIZATION  61 

in  passion,  used  to  say  that  he  had  much  extinguished  the 
unruhness  of  that  fire." 

With  a  candour  that  is  almost  more  rare  and  more 
courageous,  he  notes  for  us  his  better  quahties. 

"  That  which  supported  and  rendered  him  generally 
acceptable  was  his  generosity  (for  he  had  too  much  a  contempt 
of  money)  and  the  opinion  men  had  of  the  goodness  and  justice 
of  his  nature,  which  was  transcendent  in  him,  in  a  wonderful 
tenderness  and  delight  in  obhging.  His  integrity  was  ever 
without  blemish,  and  believed  to  be  above  temptation. 
He  was  firm  and  unshakable  in  his  friendship  :  and  though 
he  had  great  candour  towards  others  in  the  differences  of 
rehgion,  he  was  zealously  and  deliberately  fixed  in  the 
principles  both  of  (he  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
yet  he  used  to  say  to  his  nearest  friunds,  in  that  time  when 
he  expected  another  kind  of  calm  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  '  though  he  had  some  glimmering  light  of,  and  inclina- 
tion to,  virtue  in  his  nature,  that  the  whole  progress  of  his 
life  had  been  full  of  desperate  hazards  ;  and  that  only  the 
merciful  hand  of  God  Almighty  had  prevented  his  being 
both  an  unfortunate  and  a  vicious  man,'  and  he  still  said 
'  that  God  had  vouchsafed  that  signal  goodness  to  him  for 
the  piety  and  exemplar  virtue  of  his  father  and  mother,' 
whose  memory  he  had  always  in  veneration." 

A  smaller  man  might  well  have  shrunk  from  such 
Ciceronian  frankness  of  self- delineation,  which  the  greatness 
of  Hyde's  after- work  securely  redeems  from  the  imputation  of 
self-conceit.  As  it  is,  we  accept  it  as  only  one  more  of  the 
matchlessly  clear-cut  cameos  of  his  contemporaries  which 
he  has  bequeathed  to  us.  He  had  come  through  the  furnace 
without  scathe  ;  and  quotes  with  enjoyment  the  saying  of 
his  kinsman  and  bosom  friend,  Hyde,  afterwards  Chief 
Justice,  "  that  his  cousin  had  passed  his  time  very  luckily, 
and  with  notable  success,  and  was  like  to  be  very  happy 


62  WIDENING   EXPERIENCES  [chap,  ii 

in  the  world  :   but  he  would  never  advise  any  of  his  friends 
to  walk  in  the  same  paths,  or  to  tread  in  his  steps." 

Such  was  Hyde's  life  till  1639,  when  the  seemingly  clear  j 

horizon  of  England  became  darkened  with  thick  clouds.  " 

The  disturbance  arose  from  Scotland. 


( 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    SCOTTISH    TROUBLES    AND    THE    SHORT    PARLIAMENT 

In  1633,  when  all  seemed  to  be  going  well  with  the  Govern- 
ment in  England,  in  spite  of  the  cessation  of  Parliaments 
since  1629,  and  when  there  was  no  outward  sign  of  the 
undercurrent  of  uneasiness  or  discontent,  the  King  had 
made  a  progress  to  Scotland,  in  order  to  be  crowned  and  to 
investigate  the  position  of  matters  there.  He  was  attached 
to  the  country  of  his  birth  with  a  warmth  of  affection  with 
which  Hyde  had  no  sympathy,  and  which  he  seems  to  have 
regarded  as  an  amiable  weakness  on  the  part  of  the  King. 
This  was  enough  to  give  a  motive  for  the  journey  ;  but  behind 
it  lay  another,  inspired  by  Laud — the  hope  of  settling  the 
Church  on  a  sounder  basis  and  bringing  it  into  closer 
conformity  with  Laud's  ideal  for  the  Church  of  England. 
Charles  inherited  to  the  full  the  nervous  dread  and  the 
innate  dishke  of  Presbyterianism  which  the  irksome 
experience  of  his  earlier  years  had  impressed  upon  his 
father. 

His  progress  to  the  North  was  arranged  on  a  scale  of 
unprecedented  splendour,  and  involved  expenditure  in  the 
same  proportion.  The  leading  nobles  were  summoned  to 
attend,  and  found  a  new  opportunity  of  indulging  that 
lavish  display  which  suited  the  taste  and  fashion  of  the 
day,  and  which,  by  crippling  many  goodly  estates,  gave 
new  motives  for  the  rapacious  greed  characteristic  of  the 
aristocracy   of  the  period.     The  Scottish  nobility  met  the 


64  THE   SCOTTISH   TKOUBLES         [chap,  iii 

King  on  his  journey.  Their  real  power,  and  their  inde- 
pendence of  the  restraints  of  the  law  or  of  the  authority  of 
the  Crown,  were  greater  even  than  those  of  their  class  in 
England.  But  their  extortions,  however  ruthless,  were 
drawn  from  a  poverty-stricken  country,  and  their  wealth 
was  much  less  ;  yet  their  hereditary  pride  forbade  their 
being  outshone  by  the  English  aristocracy  in  the  lavishness 
of  their  display,  and  they  vied  with  each  other  in  the  number 
of  their  retainers,  in  the  costliness  of  their  equipage,  and  in 
the  extravagance  of  their  hospitality.  A  show  of  luxury 
and  a  pretence  of  cordiality  were  mere  coverings  for  virulent 
jealousy  and  boundless  schemes  of  disloyal  ambition. 

Outwardly,  indeed,  matters  seemed  to  go  smoothly  enough. 
The  Parliament  met,  and  some  Acts  were  passed  for  restrain- 
ing the  power  of  the  nobility,  who  seemed  for  the  moment 
to  acquiesce.  In  their  apparent  submission  Hyde  discerns 
only  craftiness  of  dissimulation. 

Laud,  still  Bishop  of  London,  but  soon  to  be  advanced 
to  the  Primacy,  accompanied  the  King  on  this  progress,  and 
was  at  his  elbow  to  stimulate  his  zeal  for  ecclesiastical 
uniformity.  Although  Episcopacy  existed  in  name  in 
Scotland,  it  was  a  hollow  pretence.  The  bishops  had  neither 
power  nor  consideration.  The  rigid  creed  and  the  rugged 
and  unseemly  worship  of  uncompromising  Presbyterianism 
were  dominant  throughout  the  land,  and  held  the  spirit  of 
the  people  in  the  chain  of  keen  and  militant  enthusiasm. 
Charles  and  his  clerical  adviser  saw  the  difficulty  of  their 
task,  but  wrongly  judged  that  by  temporizing  they  might 
gain  their  object.  They  were  badly  seconded  alike  by  their 
lay  and  by  their  clerical  allies  in  the  country.  The  first 
offered  only  a  semblance  of  support,  and  were  quick  to  discern 
in  the  gathering  religious  storm  a  new  opportunity  for 
strengthening  their  own  power.  The  second  were  men,  for 
the  most  part,  of  low  rank  and  feeble  judgment — whom 


1633]  THE   SCOTTISH   HIERARCHY  65 

habit  had  made  too  timid  to  assert  themselves,  and  who 
were  unable  to  give  any  useful  advice  as  to  methods.  It  was 
hard  to  say  whether  it  would  be  best  to  introduce  the  English 
Hturgy  unchanged,  or  to  devise  a  modified  liturgy  for  Scottish 
use.  The  latter  course  might  rouse  new  jealousy  of  innova- 
tion, and  give  rise  to  fears  of  papistical  leanings  ;  the  former 
course  might  inflame  the  national  passion  for  independence, 
which  watched  with  angry  jealousy  any  undue  imitation 
of  English  modes  and  fashions.  The  result  was  the  usual 
refuge  of  feeble  counsels — procrastination,  which  only  gave 
the  irritation  time  to  mature.  It  was  left  to  the  Scottish 
hierarchy,  in  consultation  with  some  of  their  brethren  in 
England,  to  frame  a  liturgy  which  was  to  be  submitted  to 
the  King. 

Before  he  returned  from  Scotland,  Charles  carried  out 
one  part  of  the  scheme  which  must  have  been  dear  to  the 
heart  of  Laud.  The  hierarchy  was  made  more  imposing. 
Hitherto  the  capital  had  only  formed  a  part  of  the  diocese 
of  St.  Andrews ;  but  now  a  Bishopric  of  Edinburgh  was 
created,  and  a  Cathedral  and  Chapter  were  endowed.  A 
still  more  marked  offence  was  given  at  once  to  the  nobihty, 
jealous  of  their  own  exclusive  hold  over  the  administration, 
and  to  the  deep-rooted  predilections  of  the  nation,  by 
adopting  the  course  so  dear  to  Laud  in  England,  of  placing 
ecclesiastics  in  possession  of  civil  power.  Archbishop 
Spottiswoode  of  St.  Andrews  was  made  Lord  Chancellor  ; 
and  several  of  the  Bishops  were  summoned  to  the  Privy 
Council,  and  placed  on  the  Bench  of  the  Court  of  Session. 
Charles  and  his  ecclesiastical  adviser  were  equally  un- 
conscious of  the  storm  which  their  ra^h  attempt  to 
realize  a  visionary  dream  was  soon  to  evoke. 

The  liturgy  was  drawn  up  by  the  Scottish  bishops 
and  revised  by  their  English  brethren.  Every  error  and 
defect  of  diplomacy  were  illustrated  in  the  methods  pursued. 

VOL,  I.  F 


66  THE   SCOTTISH   TROUBLES         [chap,  hi 

The  ecclesiastical  Canons  were  promulgated  before  the 
liturgy  was  issued,  and  not  only  were  they  published  without 
the  assent  of  the  Scottish  Council,  but  they  compelled  the 
clergy  to  submit  upon  oath  to  a  liturgy  which  they  had  not 
seen.  With  unconscious  irony,  Laud  employed,  upon  a 
people  most  jealous  of  their  national  independence,  and  upon 
consciences  most  envenomed  with  hatred  of  prelatical  pre- 
tensions, methods  which  might  well  have  strained  the 
allegiance  of  the  most  docile  of  his  Anglican  followers. 
Not  content  with  fastening  upon  the  untameable  fierceness 
of  the  fanatical  Presbyterian  religious  ordinances  which  his 
soul  loathed,  the  Canons  invaded  the  field  of  Civil  Govern- 
ment by  claiming  for  the  Crown  a  prerogative  "  according  to 
the  pattern  of  the  Kings  of  Israel,"  which  was  in  contradiction 
to  every  tenet  of  Scottish  tradition. 

It  was  in  1637  that  the  first  attempt  to  read  the  liturgy 
took  place,  and  the  riots  which  it  produced  fill  a  lively  page 
in  history,  possessing  its  ludicrous  as  well  as  its  serious  side. 
They  were  evoked  quite  as  much  by  a  fit  of  angry  temper 
as  by  the  force  of  national  and  deeply-rooted  indignation. 
They  drowned,  in  a  sort  of  tidal  wave,  a  side  of  Scottish 
life  neither  the  least  intellectual  nor  the  least  attractive. 
They  left  behind  them  in  their  course  a  deeply  riven  ravine, 
which  separated  the  great  mass  of  Scottish  feeling  for  genera- 
tions from  much  that  was  most  characteristic  of  English 
feeling.     The  anger  gathered  strength  as  it  advanced,  and 
identified  itself  with  some  of  the  strongest  fibres  of  Scottish 
national  life.     But  for  the  moment  it  is  chiefly  memorable 
because  it  showed  how  much  havoc  can  be  worked  by  inept 
persistency  in  the  pursuit  of  an  aim,  unaided  by  foresight, 
firmness  of  action,  or  dexterity  of  method.     It  may  still 
be   permitted  us   to    believe   that    wiser    counsels,   better 
strategy,  and  firmer  resolution  than  were  to  be  found  in 
the  partnership  between    Charles    and  Laud,  might   have 


1639]  SCOTTISH   REBELLION  67 

attained,  without  civil  war,  all  the  essential  objects  at  which 
they  aimed. 

But  the  heather  was  now  on  fire.  The  Assembly  of  the 
Church,  and  the  lay  councils  which  were  known  as  "  The 
Tables,"  and  which  were  composed  of  representatives  of 
all  the  Estates,  met  without  any  authority  from  the  Crown. 
The  Bishops  were  excommunicated,  and  their  remnant  of 
authority  was  defied.  Even  while  outward  observances 
of  respect  to  the  Crown  were  maintained,  the  nation  as  a 
whole  bound  itself  by  a  Covenant  to  demand  the  total 
extirpation  of  prelacy  ;  and  steps  were  taken  to  enhst  an 
army,  of  which  General  Lesley,  a  veteran  of  the  wars  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  was  placed  in  command. 

Charles  was  compelled  to  raise  an  army  to  meet  the 
threatened  rebellion  ;  and  thanks  to  careful  management 
of  the  Treasury,  he  had  ample  means  at  his  command.  The 
Earl  of  Arundel  was  appointed  general ;  the  Earl  of  Essex, 
lieutenant-general ;  and  the  Earl  of  Holland,  general  of  the 
horse.  The  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  whose  fidehty  Hyde  always 
counted  more  than  questionable,  was  placed  in  command  of 
a  fleet,  which  was  to  blockade  the  Firth  of  Forth.  Of  all 
those  named,  the  Earl  of  Essex  was  the  only  wise  selection  ; 
and  it  was  not  long  before  he  received  cause  for  reasonable 
offence.  For  the  present,  he  rendered  the  only  useful 
service,  by  advancing  in  rapid  marches  and  seizing  Berwick 
for  the  King. 

Charles  himself  now  proceeded  towards  Scotland,  sum- 
moning the  nobility  to  attend  him  on  his  progress,  and 
imposing  on  them  a  "  protestation  "  of  their  loyalty.  It 
was  a  tactless  error,  which  did  not  increase  his  forces  by 
a  single  man,  and  enabled  two  leading  nobles,  Lord  Say  and 
Sele  and  Lord  Brooke,  to  find  a  constitutional  reason  for 
emphasizing  their  disagreement  with  the  King  by  refusing 
to  take  the  oath. 


68  THE   SCOTTISH   TBOUBLES        [chap,  hi 

Charles  reached  the  neighbourhood  of  Berwick,  and 
effected  a  juncture  with  the  troops  of  Essex.  He  had  a 
force  amply  sufficient  to  have  crushed  any  army  which  the 
Scots  could  bring  against  him.  But  Holland,  with  positive 
treachery  or  absolute  incompetence,  withdrew  from  the 
front  of  Lesley's  httle  army  at  Dunse,  and  returned  to  the 
camp  of  the  King.  His  reception  there  was  so  cordial, 
that  it  looks  as  if  this  pusillanimous  retreat  was  contrived 
with  the  consent  of  the  King.  Charles  seems  to  have 
thought  that  rebellion  could  be  stamped  out  by  a  flaunting 
of  troops  in  the  face  of  the  rebels,  and  by  allowing  these 
rebels  to  gain  confidence  from  the  weakness  of  his  opposition. 

But  the  really  dangerous  element  in  the  situation  was  that 
the  Scots  had  estabhshed  close  relations  with  many  in 
Charles's  own  army.  They  still  used,  in  all  their  addresses, 
the  semblance  of  loyalty,  and  couched  their  petitions  in 
language  of  fulsome  adulation.  It  was  a  studied  device, 
which  preserved  those  who  trafficked  with  them  from  the 
penalties  of  avowed  treason.  A  so-called  "  treaty  "  was 
made,  "  That  the  armies  were  to  be  disbanded  ;  an  Act 
of  Oblivion  passed  ;  the  King's  forts  and  castles  to  be  restored  ; 
an  Assembly  and  Parliament  called  for  a  full  settlement ; 
no  persons  reserved  for  justice,  because  no  fault  had  been 
committed."  ^  As  a  fact,  those  stipulations  only  which  served 
to  mark  the  triumph  of  the  rebels  were  effective ;  the  King 
had  sacrificed  the  advantage  of  force  that  was  in  his  hand 
to  a  semblance  of  submission  in  which  his  authority  was 
openly  flouted. 

The  effect  amongst  his  immediate  surroundings  was 
equally  disastrous.  His  own  army  was  disbanded.  Essex 
was  permanently  alienated.  Holland,  whose  inefficiency 
had  been  condoned,  drew  his  connection  with  the  Scots  more 

'  This  is  Clarendon's  own  summary  of  the  Treaty  of  Berwick  (History 
of  I{ebeUio7i,  ii.  50). 


1639]        PARLIAMENT  TO  BE  SUMMONED  69 

close  without  losing  'his  influence  at  Court.  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  whose  character  showed  no  consistent  trait  except 
that  of  undeviating  treachery,  through  the  cunning  design 
of  one  who  was  almost  as  treacherous  as  himself,  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton,  became  Secretary  of  State.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Scots  not  only  defied  the  authority  of  the  King 
within  their  own  borders,  but  stimulated  opposition  in 
England,  and  were  in  negotiation  with  Richelieu,  who  saw 
in  the  encouragement  of  rebellion  an  admirable  opportunity 
of  aiming  a  blow  at  England's  power.  The  turbulent 
Scottish  aristocracy  were  confirmed  in  their  independence, 
and  knew  themselves  safe  against  any  renewed  assertions 
of  the  royal  prerogative.  Their  power  of  mischief  was 
limited  only  by  the  fact  that  they  fought,  each  for  his  own 
hand  ;  and  the  treachery  of  Hamilton  was  rivalled  and 
balanced  by  that  of  Argyie. 

It  was  plain  that  if  the  power  of  the  Crown  was  not  to 
sink  into  contempt,  some  resistance  must  be  made  to  what 
was  not  only  a  defiance  of  its  authority,  but,  by  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Scottish  army  on  the  English  border,  was  a 
standing  menace  to  the  peace  of  England.  The  carefully 
gathered  resources  of  the  Exchequer  had  been  scattered  in  a 
vain  march,  ending  in  a  disgraceful  capitulation,  which  bore 
the  name  of  a  treaty.  Charles  was  at  his  wits'  end.  He 
consulted  his  council,  and  by  their  unanimous  advice^  he 
resolved  to  summon  a  Parliament.  The  first  step  in  the 
surrender  of  a  strained  prerogative  was  taken. 

We  have  seen  how  deeply,  in  spite  of  outward  prosperity, 
the  canker  of  discontent  was  w^orking.  Laud's  diary  shows 
that  already  he  had  misgivings,  although  but  a  short  time 
before  he  had  drawn  up  a  report  upon  the  state  of  his  diocese 
that  had  shown  all  weU.   The  schemes  which  he  and  Strafford 

•  Laud  tells  us  (in    Strafford  Correspondence)  that  he  was  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  advice. 


70  THE   SCOTTISH   TROUBLES         [chap,  iii 

had  cherished  jomtly  were  becomuig  tangled.  Strafford 
himself  must  have  seen  clearly  the  fatal  weakness  and 
vacillation  of  the  King,  and  appreciated  in  their  true  signi- 
ficance the  devious  methods  of  disloyalty  at  Court.  But 
outwardly  there  was  no  sign  of  the  angry  fretfulness,  and 
none  of  the  bold  defiance  of  rebellion.  On  the  eve  of  the 
summoning  of  Parliament  Lord  Wentworth  (as  he  then 
was)  was  raised  to  the  title  of  Earl  of  Strafford,  by  which  he 
is  known  to  history,  although  he  held  that  title  scarcely  a 
year  ;  and  when  the  Parliament  met  he  was  introduced  with 
all  pomp  to  a  submissive  and  adulatory  House.^  Eoyalty 
preserved  all  its  old  dignity,  and  the  King  was  still  addressed 
in  words  which  accorded  with  the  elaborate  and  fulsome 
courtesy  of  the  day,  and  had  insensibly  habituated  men's 
minds  to  an  almost  slavish  reverence  for  the  Crown.  Just  a 
year  before  the  Parliament  met  (on  March  27th,  1639)  Charles 
had  listened  to  an  address  from  Sir  Thomas  Widdrington, 
the  Recorder  of  York,  which  began  with  these  words  : 

"  Most  Gracious  and  Dread  Sovereign,  Be  graciously 
pleased  to  pardon  this  stay,  that  we,  the  least  and  meanest 
motes  in  the  Firmament  of  your  Majesty's  Government, 
should  thus  dare  to  cause  you  (our  bright  and  glorious  Sun) 
to  stand.  .  .  .  Give  us  leave,  who  are  the  members  of  this 
Ancient  and  decayed  City,  to  make  known  unto  your  Majesty 
(even  our  Sun  itself)  where  the  Sun  now  stands  in  the  City 
of  York." 

It  would  be  easy  to  parallel  these  words  by  many  similar 
utterances.  No  one  yet  dreamed  that  the  Crown  and  its 
dignity  were  to  be  assailed.  Rumours  of  Scottish  turbulence 
had  scarcely  yet  penetrated  into  England.  The  various 
wrangling  factions  at  the  Court  had  found,  as  they  fancied, 
new  chances  of  increasing  their  influence  in  the  confused 

'  In  the  House  of  Lords,  Whitolocke  tells  iia,  thanks  were  paid  to  Strafford 
for  his  part  in  the  summoning  of  Parliament. 


1640]  HYDE   IN   PARLIAMENT  71 

negotiations  with  the  Scots.  Those  more  ardent  spirits 
who  chafed  at  Laud's  ecclesiastical  innovations,  and  at 
Strafford's  domination ;  those  scattered  victims  who  had 
suffered  from  the  various  unconstitutional  tribunals  ;  the 
wealthy  landowners  whose  properties  were  crippled  by  fines, 
and  the  lawyers  who  found  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary 
courts  mterfered  with,  doubtless  recognized  that  the  summon- 
ing of  Parhament  must  clip  the  wings  of  the  prerogative. 
But  none  of  them  contemplated  an  impending  struggle  in 
which  the  Crown  would,  in  a  few  months,  have  to  hsten  to 
words  of  thinly  veiled  insult  and  open  defiance,  instead  of 
the  language  of  an  almost  oriental  servihty. 

It  was  on  April  13th,  1640,  that  Parliament  once  more  met 
after  an  interval  of  eleven  years  ;  and  for  the  first  time  Hyde 
found  himself  embarked  definitely  on  a  political  career,  as 
member  of  the  assembly  which  was  soon  to  make  itself  the 
sovereign  influence  in  the  constitution.  It  says  much  for 
the  influence  and  credit  that  he  had  already  gained  at 
two-and- thirty,  that  he  was  chosen  for  two  places — Wotton 
Basset  in  Wilts,  and  Shaftesbury  ha  Dorset ;  and  the  double 
election  proves  that  he  did  not  owe  his  seat  to  the  nomination 
of  a  patron.  He  selected  to  sit  for  Wotton  Basset.  When 
he  entered  Parhament,  it  did  not  uivolve  any  serious  inter- 
ference with  his  professional  career.  Men  had  grown 
accustomed  to  count  Parhamentary  service  as  merely  one 
of  many  occupations  of  life  ;  and  if  they  contemplated  a 
continuance  of  the  revived  assembly,  no  one  could  dream 
that  its  sessions  would  be  so  prolonged  or  so  continuous  as 
seriously  to  encroach  upon  their  other  business.'  It  was 
a  position  which  the  young  lawyer  would  assume  as  the 
natural  appendage  of  his  rank  as  a  country  gentleman  of 

'  The  House  met  at  eight  o'clock  and  sat  till  midday.  The  afternoon 
was  assigned  to  the  work  of  committees,  but  no  one  foresaw  that  such  ^\  ork 
would  be  as  constant  and  engrossing  as  it  became.  The  business  of  a  lawyer 
was  largelj'  done  in  the  afternoon. 


72  THE  SCOTTISH  TROUBLES        [chap,  iii 

influence  and  credit,  and  which  he  would  regard  as  likely 
to  enhance  his  professional  standing.  It  involved  no  divorce 
from  the  business  of  his  life,  and  just  as  httle  was  it  looked 
upon  as  a  step  towards  employment  under  the  Crown.  That 
was  assigned  on  other  grounds  than  those  of  Parliamentary 
service. 

But  Hyde  clearly  entered  Parliament  with  a  full  intention 
of  playing  his  part  in  the  redress  of  grievances  and  in  curbing 
claims  of  prerogative  which  the  great  mass  of  professional 
opinion  held  to  be  grievous  errors,  quite  as  likely  to  work 
injury  to  the  Crown  as  to  the  Hberty  of  the  subject.  This 
attitude  he  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  it  was  the 
almost  inevitable  line  for  any  independent  man  entering  a 
House  of  Commons  which  had  been  summoned  because  the 
position  under  the  administration  of  the  last  eleven  years 
had  become  impossible,  and  of  which  the  members  were  sent 
there  solely  to  redress  the  existing  grievances.  There  is 
not  the  smallest  evidence  that  he  acted  in  any  way  as  a 
member  of  a  party,  or  that  any  scheme  of  procedure  was 
jointly  arranged.  The  party  opposed  to  the  Court  v/as 
virtually  the  whole  nation.  If  any  deliberate  scheme  was 
operative  at  all,  it  was  only  amongst  a  very  small  group, 
with  which  Hyde  had  httle  connection,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  even  they  had  very  definite  aims  in  these  earlier 
months.  There  was  no  organized  opposition ;  and  it  is 
clear  that  even  while  he  was  boldly  and  openly  attacking 
some  phases  of  strained  prerogative,  Hyde  did  not  regard 
himself  as  hostile  to  the  Crown,  and  continued  in  the  closest 
intimacy  with  Laud  himself.  He  chose  his  attitude  as  the 
result  of  his  own  deliberate  opinion,  and  without  fear  or 
favour.  It  could  not  secure  the  gratitude  of  the  Court, 
although  it  led  to  no  breach  of  favour.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  thought  of  ambition  could  have  prompted  him 
to  court  the  favour   of   an   opposition,  which  neither  had, 


1640]  MODERATION   OF   PARLIAMENT  78 

nor  to  all  appearance  was  likely  to  have,  any  favour  to 
bestow. 

The  opening  scenes  of  the  session  saw  no  diminution 
in  the  ample  and  ceremonious  loyalty  towards  the  King 
which  the  fashion  of  the  day  prescribed.  In  the  reception 
given  to  the  King's  speech,  in  the  choice  of  a  Speaker,^  and 
in  the  terms  of  the  address  made  by  the  Speaker  on  behalf 
of  the  House,  there  was  no  jarring  word  which  could  indicate 
any  deliberate  intention  of  pressing  opposition  to  lengths 
which  would  infringe  on  the  lavish  respect  paid  to  the  Crown, 
far  less  of  seriously  altering  the  balance  of  the  constitution. 
The  consistent  note  of  the  debates  is  that  grievances  were  to 
be  redressed,  not  by  alterations  of  that  balance,  but  by  the 
removal  of  what  were  either  innovations  or  at  most  trouble- 
some accretions  that  had  grown  up  through  neglect,  and 
were  cumbering  the  administrative  machine.  We  are  even 
told  that  when  ship-money  was,  by  a  too  impetuous  lawyer, 
stigmatized  as  an  "  abomination,"  the  susceptibihties  of 
the  House  were  shocked,  and  the  too  zealous  orator  narrowly 
escaped  censure  for  his  unbridled  tongue.  A  susceptibihty 
so  dehcate  is  not  without  its  humorous  aspect,  in  the  light 
of  later  events. 

The  opening  speech  ^  dealing  with  the  general  grievances 

*  Serjeant  Glanvil  was  really  the  choice  of  the  King,  whose  wish  was 
submissively  accepted  by  the  House.  Hyde  describes  him  as  "  a  man  very 
equal  to  the  work,  very  well  acquainted  with  the  proceedings  in  Parliament ; 
of  a  quick  conception,  and  of  a  ready  and  voluble  expression,  dexterous  in 
disposing  the  House,  and  very  acceptable  to  them."  Much  latitude  was 
allowed  to  the  Speaker,  and  he  intervened  on  behalf  of  the  Cro\\n  in  one 
important  debate  in  committee,  where  another  member  took  the  chair. 
His  speech  on  that  occasion  was  admirably  conceived,  and  all  but  commanded 
the  assent  of  the  House  ;  and  yet,  because  he  had  to  balance  his  advocacy  of 
a  generous  grant  by  some  strictures  on  ship-money,  he  was  (as  Hyde  declares) 
the  object  of  suspicion  at  Court.  Charles  had,  indeed,  an  admirable  faculty 
of  alienating  some  of  his  most  useful  allies. 

'-■  In  regard  to  the  course  of  this  Short  Parliament,  Professor  S.  R. 
Gardiner  speaks  with  his  usual  contempt  of  Hyde's  account  and  of  his 
personal  position.  It  is  true  that  Hyde  wrongly  places  Pym  first  in  order 
of  time,  as  he  was  first  in  importance  amongst  the  speakers.     The  error  is 


74  THE  SCOTTISH  TBOUBLES        [chap,  hi 

resulting  from  the  cessation  of  Parliament,  was  made  by 
Harbottle  Grimston/  the  member  for  Colchester ;  but  the 
chief  part  in  the  debate  fell  to  the  man  even  then  the  most 
experienced  Parliamentarian  in  the  House,  and  soon  to 
be  the  central  figure  of  a  determined  opposition — Pym. 
A  few  weeks  were  to  show  Pym's  wonderful  astuteness  as  a 
parliamentary  strategist,  and  at  the  same  time  to  disclose 
the  unsuspected  extent  of  his  aims  and  objects  ;  but  now 
he  began  a  discourse  of  two  hours  by  mentioning  the  King 
"  with  the  most  profound  reverence,"  and  commending  his 
wisdom  and  justice. 

The  next  day  Hyde  made  his  maiden  speech,  and  devoted 
it  to  an  attack  upon  the  flagrant  abuses  of  the  Earl  Marshal's 
Court.  This  court  was  one  of  those  fungous  growths 
which  had  vastly  swollen  during  the  non-parliamentary 
interval,  and  which  really  benefited  no  one  but  its  president,^ 
and  the  crowd  of  legal  myrmidons  who  battened  on  its 
extortions.  The  royal  prerogative  derived  neither  strength 
nor  revenue  from  the  fantastic  and  grotesque  jurisdiction 
which  that  court  claimed  ;   and  probably  had  Strafford  not 

not  a  serious  one.  If  we  wish  for  a  clear  and  vivid  picture  of  the  debates, 
and  a  statement  of  their  essential  meaning,  some  will  prefer  Clarendon 
to  Professor  Gardiner.  It  is  difficult,  from  the  mass  of  the  Professor's 
intricate  comments,  to  follow  the  procedure  at  all.  The  closing  words  of 
his  comment  on  the  whole  procedure  are  in  his  usual  tone  of  depreciation. 
Hyde's  regret  for  the  failure  of  any  compromise  he  explains  thus  :  "  Hyde 
never  knew  what  he  wanted  beyond  some  dream  of  his  own  ...  in  which 
tyranny  and  sedition  were  to  be  renounced  as  equally  impracticable."  We 
may  all  stigmatize  each  other's  aims  as  "  dreams,"  but,  as  described,  Hyde's 
object  does  not  seem  altogether  undesirable.  To  assert  that  he  did  not 
know  what  he  wanted,  and  to  decry  his  "  lawyer-like  dexterity,"  do  not 
savour  of  very  novel  or  impartial  criticism. 

'  Harbottle  Grimston  was  almost  as  moderate  in  his  views  as  Hyde 
himself.  He  belonged  to  an  ancient  and  wealthy  familj',  and  by  the  death 
of  his  brother  became  heir  to  his  father's  baronetcy  and  ample  estate. 
Such  a  man  was  not  the  stuff  of  which  revolutionaries  are  made.  At  a  later 
day  he  resisted  Cromwell,  and  presided  over  the  Convention  Parliament 
which  restored  Charles  II. 

-  The  Earl  Marshal  was  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  of  whose  character  and 
intellect  Hyde  had  perhaps  an  unduly  mean  opinion,  and  who  repaid  the 
favours  of  the  Crown  to  which  he  owed  his  impunity  in  the  extravagant 
licence  of  his  jurisdiction,  by  what  Hyde  deemed  disloyalty  and  ingratitude. 


< 

i 


1640]  HYDE'S   FIRST  EFFORT  75 

had  weightier  business  in  hand,  be  might  have  swept  away 
such  sorry  and  ridiculous  scandals  of  administration.  Hyde's 
attack  upon  its  abuses  was  based  upon  ridicule  as  well  as 
invective,  and  a  very  meagre  recital  of  the  antics  of  this 
court  was  enough  to  cover  it  with  contempt.  Trumpery 
charges ;  fictitious  insults  based  upon  harmless  jests  on  a 
nobleman's  coat-of-arms ;  extravagant  attempts  on  the 
part  of  aristocratic  spendthrifts  to  evade  their  debts  by 
charging  their  base-born  creditors  with  scant  obeisance  to 
their  rank — such  instances  in  abundance  could  be  adduced 
from  the  most  recent  records  of  the  court,  and  it  appeared 
that  it  had  not  even  the  merit  of  antiquity,  because  some 
of  its  precedents  dated  only  from  1633.  It  was  a  subject 
admirably  fitted  for  the  first  effort  of  the  young  Parlia- 
mentarian. Hyde  made  deft  use  of  it,  and  did  not  spoil 
his  effort  by  any  excess  of  vituperation,  or  by  personal 
reflection  upon  the  aristocrat  whose  privileges  were 
threatened.^  He  achieved  an  eminent  success.  As  he 
complacently  reports,  "  that  being  the  first  part  he  had 
acted  upon  that  stage,  brought  him  much  applause ; 
and  he  was  ever  afterwards  heard  with  great  benignity." 
A  few  months  later,  he  had  even  better  evidence  of 
the  efficacy  of  his  speech.  The  "  great  man  "  who  was 
attacked  so  far  debased  his  greatness  as  to  make  court  to 

'  "The  modesty  of  that  time  not  permittmg  the  mention  of  great  men 
with  any  reproach"  (Life,  i.  82).  Such  excess  of  modesty  was  short- 
lived. 

But  while  we  allow  all  credit  to  Hyde  for  his  attack  upon  the  antics  of 
this  court,  it  is  ridiculous  to  claim  for  that  attack  the  merit  of  a  sublime 
patriotism,  which  Hyde  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  disavow.  The 
claim  is  made,  in  the  true  spirit  of  orthodox  Whiggism,  by  Mr.  Lister,  who, 
with  equal  absurdity,  passes  man}'  a  censure  upon  Hyde  wherever  he  seems 
to  act  contrary  to  the  accepted  maxims  of  that  creed.  The  powers  of  the 
Earl  Marshal's  Court  were  really  a  survival,  which  was  not  without  a  certain 
quaint  piquancy,  but  which  no  man  could  seriously  defend.  To  treat  them 
as  an  adjunct  of  the  roj'al  prerogative,  or  as  involving  great  constitutional 
questions,  shows  a  lack  of  humour.  There  are  some  picturesque  and  equally 
absurd  survivals  still ;  but  they  are  not  felt  to  be  of  primary  importance. 
Hvde  found  in  the  Earl  Marshal's  Court  a  good  subject  for  a  maiden  speech, 
which  could  ofiend  nobody  but  the  hangers-on  of  the  Court. 


76  THE  SCOTTISH  TROUBLES        [chap,  hi 

the  invader  of  his  privileges,  to  thanli  him  for  "  having 
treated  his  person  so  civilly,"  and  to  excuse  himself  by  the 
ill  advice  of  injudicious  lawyers  ;  winding  up  with  a  pro- 
fession of  kindness  and  esteem  "  when  in  his  heart  he  did  him 
the  honour  to  detest  and  hate  him  perfectly,  as  he  professed 
to  all  whom  he  trusted." 

But  the  course  of  Parhamentary  procedure  did  not  long 
run  so  smoothly.  The  Court  was  at  its  wits'  end  for  money, 
and  a  mere  discussion  of  past  grievances,  however  respectful 
the  language  in  which  it  was  carried  on,  could  not  fill  the 
coffers  of  the  King,  or  enable  suitable  preparations  to  be 
made  for  the  threatened  renewal  of  hostilities  by  the  Scots. 
In  despair  of  other  methods,  the  agents  of  the  Court  suggested 
to  the  House  of  Lords  that  they  should  move  the  Commons 
to  grant  a  supply,  and  to  proceed  afterwards  to  discuss  their 
grievances.  It  is  strange  that  such  inept  advice  should 
be  given  ;  stranger  still  that  it  should  be  accepted.  It  can 
only  be  explained  by  the  curious  apathy  to  Parhamentary 
rights,  bred  by  eleven  years  of  Parliamentary  suspension. 
It  gave  rise  to  vehement  protests  from  the  Commons  against 
the  gross  breach  of  privilege,  and  from  that  moment  a  new 
temper  was  aroused.  The  feeling  in  the  Commons  was 
unanimous ;  and  Hyde  was  as  indignant  as  his  fellow-members 
at  the  unprecedented  presumption  of  the  Lords.  Profuse 
apologies  were  offered  ;  the  Lords  protested  that  in  offering 
their  advice  they  had  no  thought  of  dictating  the  methods  of 
the  grant.  But  the  mischief  was  done,  and  there  were  plenty 
of  men  in  the  House  of  Commons  who  might  hesitate  to 
infringe  the  tone  of  respect  adopted  by  universal  assent,  but 
were  in  no  wise  unwilling  to  see  a  sturdier  spirit  prevail. 

Another  expedient  was  adopted.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the 
new  Secretary  of  State,  was  commissioned  by  the  King  to 
offer  a  bargain  to  the  House.  If  they  would  grant  him 
twelve  subsidies,  he  "  would  release  all  his  title  or  pretence  to 


1640]  PARLIAMENTARY   TACTICS  77 

ship-money."  It  was  a  singularly  clumsy  proposal.  Bargains 
of  the  kind  are  in  their  essence  inadmissible.  They  bring 
discredit  on  both  sides.  If  ship-money  was  justified  by  the 
prerogative  of  the  Crown,  the  King  could  not  abandon  it 
without  legislative  enactment ;  if  it  were  doubtful,  the 
Commons  could  not  carry  out  their  side  of  the  compact 
without  seeming  to  condone  an  illegal  act,  by  admitting  that 
the  King  had  some  right  which  he  could  bargain  away. 
Their  grants  must  be  free  gifts,  not  the  payment  of  a  price. 
On  the  next  day  there  was  a  debate  of  what  was  then  deemed 
unprecedented  length,  but  was  soon  to  be  usual,  lasting 
from  nine  in  the  morning  till  four  in  the  afternoon.  It  was 
renewed  the  following  day,  and  then  appeared  the  arts  of 
Parliamentary  tactics  on  both  sides.  Hampden — whom 
Hyde  judges  to  have  been  "  the  most  popular  man  "  in 
the  House — proposed  to  put  the  question  in  the  bluntest 
form,  "  whether  the  House  would  consent  to  the  proposition, 
as  contained  in  the  message  ?  "  This  would  infallibly  have 
produced  a  negative  vote,  as  the  vast  majority  of  the  House 
deemed  the  amount  excessive  ;  and  although  Glanvil,  the 
Speaker,  intervened  with  a  persuasive  speech  in  the  debate 
in  committee  to  advocate  the  proposal,  the  intervention 
was  in  vain,  and  the  opponents  of  the  Court  insisted  upon 
Hampden's  question.  Then  it  was  that  Hyde,  for  the  first 
time,  showed  that  he  could  add  to  a  briUiant  maiden  speech 
an  astonishing  skill  in  the  tactics  of  debate  ;  and  his  action 
for  the  first  time  indicates  that  he  was  not  prepared  to  go 
all  lengths  in  opposition  to  the  Court.  He  moved  that  the 
first  question  should  be  merely  whether  they  would  grant 
a  supply  or  not ;  and  that  thereafter  they  might  discuss  the 
amount  and  manner  of  the  grant.  This  device  commanded 
a  large  measure  of  assent,  and  almost  foiled  the  scheme  of 
Hampden  and  Pym.  The  House  was  fairly  divided,  and 
alternate  cries  for  "  Mr.  Hampden's  motion,"  "  Mr.  Hyde's 


78  THE   SCOTTISH   TROUBLES         [chap,  in 

motion "  were  shouted  from  the  benches.  Hyde  might 
have  won  a  decisive  triumph,  and  the  impending  struggle 
might  have  been  materially  modified,  or  even  averted.  But 
a  strange  intervention  on  the  part  of  Herbert,  the  Solicitor- 
General,  and  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  Secretary  of  State,  scattered 
to  the  winds  all  hope  of  pacification.  Herbert  opposed  the 
proposal,  and  he  was  vehemently  supported  in  his  opposition 
by  Vane.  Vane  was  an  emissary  of  ill  omen  for  the  King, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  only  transmitted  an  ill-judged 
message  which  he  had  not  attempted  to  avert,  or  deliberately 
invented  a  device  which  he  intended  should  lead  to  trouble. 
Whatever  may  be  the  truth,'  Vane  rose  and  announced  that 
"  the  carrying  that  question  could  be  of  no  use ;  "  as  he 
had  authority  to  tell  them  that  a  vote  otherwise  than  in 
the  proportion  and  manner  proposed  would  not  be  accepted 
by  the  King.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  adjourn  the 
House  till  the  next  day.  The  peevishness  and  pride  of 
Herbert  wrought  as  hurtfully  to  the  King  as  they  did  on 
many  a  future  occasion  ;  ^  and  the  perverted  ingenuity  of 

'  The  King  is  reported  by  Hyde  as  having  afterwards  "  declared  with 
great  anger  that  he  had  never  given  Vane  any  such  authority  "  {History  of 
Rebellion,  ii.  79).  "  It  is  incredible,"  says  Professor  Gardiner,  "  that  Vane 
should  have  acted  thus  without  express  authority  from  Charles." 
Credibility  is  not  a  safe  guide  with  regard  to  Vane's  action,  and  we  must 
remember  that  Vane  in  the  Council  pressed  twelve  subsidies  against  eight, 
which  was  the  reduced  figure  advised  by  Strafford,  and  adopted  after 
careful  discussion.  Vane,  therefore,  either  altered  the  deliberate  decision 
of  the  Council  with  the  informal  assent  of  the  King,  or  he  made  a  false 
representation  to  the  House  of  Commons.  The  distinction  between  the  two 
views  of  his  conduct  does  not  seem  a  material  one.  Hyde  does  not  profess 
to  know,  but  he  indicates  what  was  the  general,  and  not  ill-grounded,  opinion. 

"  Edward  Herbert  was  cousin  to  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  and  was 
born  in  1590.  In  the  first  stages  of  his  legal  and  Parliamentary  career  his 
attitude  was  rather  that  of  an  opponent  of  the  Court,  and  he  was  engaged 
in  the  impeachment  of  Buckingham  in  1626.  But  soon  after,  he  obtained 
advancement  at  Court,  and  we  hear  of  him  as  one  of  those  who  (mth  Hyde) 
arranged  the  masque  for  the  Royal  entertainment  in  1634.  He  became 
Solicitor-General  in  1639,  and  Attorney- General  in  1640  ;  and  soon  after 
was  involved  in  suspicion  wth  the  Parliament,  as  having  drawn  the  charges 
against  the  five  members  whom  Charles  attempted  to  arrest.  From  that 
time  he  was  an  avowed  Royalist ;  but  his  sulky  temper,  and  his  confused 
arguments  made  him  of  little  advantage  as  an  adherent.     He  died  in  1657. 


1 


1640]   DISSOLUTION   OF   SHORT   PARLIAMENT      79 

Vane  *  brought  him  one  step  nearer  to  the  vengeance  on  Straf- 
ford and  Laud  which  was  now  the  master  passion  of  his  hfe.^ 
The  case  was  now  bad  enough,  but  evil  counsels  at  Court 
soon  made  it  worse.  All  now  feared  that  a  fit  of  temper 
might  bring  about  a  dissolution.  Hyde  saw  the  danger, 
and  when  the  debate  closed  he  hastened  to  Lambeth  to 
impress  his  own  alarm  upon  Laud.  He  found  him  as  usual 
in  his  garden,  already  depressed  by  the  fear  of  impending 
disaster.  Hyde  told  him  the  general  expectation,  and 
besought  him  "  to  use  all  his  credit  to  prevent  such  a 
desperate  counsel  as  dissolution."  He  represented  the  temper 
and  disposition  of  the  House  as  such  as  could  never  be  hoped 
for  again,  and  expressed  his  conviction  that  whatever 
obstruction  there  might  be,  there  was  no  settled  intention 
of  disturbing  the  Government  of  the  King.  Laud  absolutely 
declined  to  interfere  ;  he  would  neither  persuade  nor  dis- 
suade the  dissolution,  and  he  made  it  plain  that,  in  his  view, 
delay  and  obstruction  were  tantamount  to  dehberate  dis- 
obedience to  the  behests  of  the  King.  On  May  5th  the  King 
hurried  to  the  House  of  Lords  in  unseemly  haste,  and, 
summoning  the  Commons,  dissolved  the  Parliament  which 
had  sat  but  three  weeks. 


'  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  elder,  was  bom  in  1589.  At  an  early  age,  after 
leaving  Oxford,  he  attached  himself  to  the  Court.  He  obtained  the  honour 
of  knighthood  from  James  I.  in  1611,  was  employed  on  various  foreign 
missions,  and  managed  by  shrewdness  and  obsequiousness  to  become  the 
holder  of  several  lucrative  posts,  by  which  his  wealth  rapidly  increased. 
His  abilities  were  very  meagre,  and  his  promotion  to  the  post  of  Secretary 
soon  after  was  not  explained  by  any  personal  eminence.  His  wealth  enabled 
him  to  purchase  Raby  Castle,  and  it  was  the  assumption  by  Strafford,  as  his 
second  title,  of  the  name  of  Baron  Raby,  that  made  Vane  his  sworn  enemy. 

-  In  the  life  of  Edmund  Waller,  prefixed  to  his  poems,  an  incident  is 
told  which  shows  that  WaUer  concurred  with  Hyde,  and  was  anxious  to 
bring  about  a  reasonable  settlement.  WaUer  was,  it  appears,  so  far  in 
credit  at  Court,  that  he  had  been  asked  by  the  King  to  exert  himself  for  the 
grant.  He  heard  Vane's  announcement  with  dismay,  and  "  spoke  earnestly 
to  Sir  Thomas  Jermyn,  Comptroller  of  the  Household,  to  save  his  master 
from  the  effects  of  so  bold  a  falsity."  But  Sir  Thomas  did  not  venture  to 
intervene,  and  "  his  son,  the  Earl  of  St.  Albans,  afterwards  told  Mr.  Waller 
that  his  father's  cowardice  ruined  the  King." 


80  THE   SCOTTISH   TROUBLES         [chap,  hi 

Within  an  hour  after  this  fatal  dissolution,  Hyde  met 
St.  John.  The  customary  gloom  on  St.  John's  morose  face 
had  given  place  to  "  a  most  cheerful  aspect,"  and  Hyde, 
as  much  against  his  usual  wont,  was  gloomy  and  depressed. 
St.  John  asked  him,  "  What  troubled  him  ?  "  "  The  same," 
answered  Hyde,  "as  he  beheved  troubled  most  good  men  ; 
that  in  such  a  time  of  confusion,  so  wise  a  Parliament,  which 
could  only  have  found  a  remedy  for  it,  was  so  unseasonably 
dismissed."  St.  John  answered  warmly,  "  That  all  was 
well ;  that  it  must  be  worse  before  it  was  better  ;  and  that 
this  Parliament  would  never  have  done  what  was  necessary 
to  have  been  done."  St.  John  doubtless  spoke  not  for 
himself  alone,  but  for  plenty  more ;  for  Pym  and  Hampden, 
for  Martin  and  the  younger  Vane,  and,  above  all,  for  the 
member  for  Cambridge,  Oliver  Cromwell — a  silent  member 
in  the  first  Parliament  of  1640.  The  thin  cloak  of  reverential 
submission  was  soon  to  be  thrown  aside.  Dulness  of  per- 
ception had  prevented  Charles  from  using  it  to  his  advantage 
as  and  when  he  might  have  done  so. 

Parliament  was  dissolved  on  May  5th ;  on  the  6th,  papers 
were  posted  in  the  city  calling  on  the  apprentices  to  rise 
and  attack  the  Archbishop  in  his  palace  at  Lambeth.  A 
few  days  later  a  rabble,  according  to  some  accounts  five 
hundred  strong,^  gathered  round  the  palace,  and  although  it 
had  been  put  into  some  state  of  defence.  Laud  was  obliged 
to  escape  in  disguise,  and  to  take  refuge  in  Whitehall. 
One  of  the  rioters  was  hanged ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  the 
outbreak  of  disorder  elsewhere,  and  even  on  a  more  serious 
scale.  The  crop  of  libels  on  Laud  was  again  heavy,  and 
the  turbulence  which  these  showed  was  soon  to  rise 
higher. 

'  Clarendon  [Rebellion,  ii.  86)  saj'S  "  some  thousands,"  and  it  would  seem 
that  his  estimate  is  more  likely  to  be  correct.  A  gathering  of  five  hundred 
people  hardly  deserves  the  name  of  a  "  riot," 


1640]  PREPAKATIONS   FOR   WAR  81 

Meanwhile  every  effort  had  to  be  made  by  the  King's 
Council  to  prepare  for  the  war  with  the  Scots,  and  to  re- 
plenish the  Exchequer.  In  addition  to  the  other  evils  which 
surrounded  the  King,  there  was  the  further  evil  of  a  divided 
Council.^  Every  effort  was  made  to  raise  money  :  by  loans, 
by  ship-money,  by  voluntary  contributions,  or  even  by 
borrowing  from  Spain.  Troops  were  levied  by  the  royal 
warrant,  but  the  efficacy  of  the  warrant  was  disputed,  and 
the  troops,  when  raised,  mutinied  against  their  officers, 
and  showed  that  little  reliance  could  be  placed  on  their 
fidelity  when  put  to  the  test.  The  Earl  of  Northumberland 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  army,  with  Lord  Conway 
for  his  general  of  horse — a  tried  soldier,  but  an  indolent 
man,  half-hearted  in  the  work  to  which  he  was  called,  and 
too  much  inclined  to  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  and  to  a  life 
of  debauchery,  to  be  relied  on  for  great  efforts  in  a  desperate 
cause.  But  he  was  possessed  of  no  mean  powers  as  a 
scholar,  and  was  a  man  capable  of  warm  friendship  ;  and 
his  social  gifts,  combined  with  his  cordial  support  of  the 
Church,  had  endeared  him  to  Laud.    He  allowed  himself  to 

'  Of  the  King's  counsellors  the  first  and  foremost,  upon  whose  strength 
of  purpose  all  must  depend,  was  Strafford  himself.  But  he  could  rely  upon 
little  firmness  of  resolution  in  the  King,  and  he  was  himself  hard  pressed  by 
dangerous  illness,  which  frequently  during  these  last  months,  rendered 
him  incapable  of  action.  Laud  stiU  carried  on  a  vigorous  policy  in  Con- 
vocation, which  continued,  with  doubtful  legality,  to  sit  after  Parliament 
was  prorogued.  Next  to  these  was  Lord  Cottington,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer — suave,  bland,  and  far-sighted,  but  cautious  and  even  timid  in 
action.  When  Portland  had  been  the  "  Lady  Mora,"  or  Lady  Delay,  of  the 
Strafford  and  Laud  correspondence,  Cottington  had  been  referred  to  as 
"  Lady  Mora's  waiting-maid."  Northumberland  was  joined  to  them  "  for 
ornament,"  and  Bishop  Juxon,  of  London,  was  Laud's  faithful  henchman, 
and  held  place  as  Lord  Treasurer.  Vane  and  Windebanke  were  the  two 
Secretaries  of  State  :  the  first  was  treacherous,  and  playing  a  double  game; 
the  second  lay  under  a  burden  of  odium  which  was  soon  to  force  him  to 
withdraw  himself  from  the  vengeance  of  the  Parliament.  The  Marquis 
of  Hamilton  had  inspired  a  false  confidence  of  his  fidelity  in  the  King,  but 
was  suspected,  on  good  grounds,  by  the  others,  who  knew  that  he  was  a 
worthy  pendant  to  the  double-minded  Argyle.  These  constituted  what  was 
opprobriouslv  known  as  the  Junto  or  Cabinet  Council  [Hist,  cf  Rebellion, 
ii.  99). 

VOL.  I.  G 


82  THE  SCOTTISH   TEOUBLES        [chap,  iii 

be  outmanoeuvred,  and  while  attempting  to  dispute  the 
passage  of  the  Tyne  by  the  Scots  at  Newburn,  about  four 
miles  from  Newcastle,  his  forces  were  routed,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  yield  Newcastle  into  the  hands  of  the  Scottish 
army.  Strafford  found  that  all  depended  upon  himself, 
as  the  one  spirit  whom  no  adverse  circumstances  could 
dismay.  It  was  as  a  desperate  resource  that  he  was  appointed 
to,  or  it  might  be  more  correct  to  say  assumed,  the  command 
of  the  army  ;  but  he  found,  when  he  betook  himself,  broken 
as  he  was  in  health,  to  the  seat  of  war,  all  in  the 
dismay  attendant  upon  divided  counsels,  disaffection  and 
treachery  in  full  sway,  and  an  army  ill  provided,  mutinous, 
and  with  no  true  spirit  of  discipline.  It  was  no  wonder  that 
his  efforts  to  restore  order  in  its  ranks  marshalled  against 
him  bitter  feeling  from  every  grade  in  the  army.  Those 
who  had  been  silenced  by  his  undisputed  sway  now  sum- 
moned courage  to  plot  against  him,  and  did  not  scruple 
to  accuse  him  as  the  head  and  fount  of  all  that  had  aroused 
discontent  throughout  the  kingdom. 

The  defeat  at  Newburn  came  at  the  end  of  August. 
Thereafter  the  Scots  made  new  demands,  and  asked  that' 
commissioners  should  be  appointed  to  treat.  The  advisers 
of  the  King  could  only  suggest,  as  a  temporary  substitute  for 
Parliament,  that  a  Great  Council  of  the  Peers  should  be 
summoned.  That  Council  met  on  September  24th,  and  the 
King  announced  in  his  opening  speech  his  intention  to 
summon  a  Parliament  to  meet  on  November  3rd.  The 
Council  was  a  futile  experiment,  that  proved  its  own 
futihty  at  the  outset.  Pending  the  meeting  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  King  consulted  them  as  to  the  steps  to  be 
taken  in  view  of  the  rebel  army  which  had  invaded 
the  country.  To  Charles  himself  most  probably,  and  to 
Strafford  most  certainly,  the  best  course  would  seem  to 
be  to  prosecute  the  war.     It   was   not   the   view    of   the 


1640]    TEEMS   ARRANGED   WITH   THE   SCOTS       83 

majority  of  the  Great  Council.  The  Earl  of  Bristol/  whose 
long  experience  and  great  abihties  gave  him  preponderating 
weight,  and  who,  although  he  had  no  reason  for  attachment 
to  the  Court,  was  not  prepared  to  make  any  extreme  and 
dangerous  concession  to  its  opponents,  swayed  the  Council 
against  any  prosecution  of  the  war.  Commissioners  were 
appointed  to  meet  at  Ripon,  and  finally  a  treaty  which 
secured  the  Scots  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  advantages 
which  they  had  won,  and  burdened  the  English  exchequer 
with  the  pay  of  their  army,  encamped  on  English  soil,  was 
ratified  on  October  28th.  To  all  the  accumulated  discontent 
arising  from  political  grievances,  there  was  now  added, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  nation,  the  costly  indignity  of  a  foreign 
army  planted  within  their  borders,  to  be  maintained  by  the 
taxation  of  the  Enghsh.  It  did  not  lessen  the  damage  to  the 
King's  cause  that  amongst  his  opponents,  and  even  amongst 
those  who  maintained  an  outward  loyalty,  there  were  not 
a  few  who  found  in  the  presence  of  that  army,  and  in  their 
own  connection  with  its  leaders,  an  added  chance  of  insisting 
more  peremptorily  on  their  demands,  and  who  foresaw  a 
new  function  for  the  Parliament,  so  soon  to  meet,  in  mediating 
between  that  army  and  the  King.  The  summoning  of  the 
Great  Council  was  the  device  of  timid  advisers  to  an  irresolute 
master,  and  was  in  itself  a  sign  that  Strafford's  vigour  was 
no  longer  the  King's  chief  guide.     The  announcement  that 

'  John  Dig  by,  the  first  Earl  of  Bristol,  was  born  in  1580.  At  an  early 
age  he  was  employed  in  some  embassies  of  the  first  importance,  and  had  a 
most  difficult  part  to  play  as  ambassador  to  Spain  when  the  Spanish  marriage 
was  contemplated.  The  compUcations  that  arose  out  of  the  ill-timed  visit 
of  Buckingham  and  Charles  to  Spain  involved  Bristol  in  disfavour,  which 
led  to  a  senseless  attempt  to  impeach  him.  He  was  ordered  not  to  obey 
the  writ  formally  sent  to  him  as  a  peer,  but  defied  the  order.  For  many 
years  he  had  remained  aloof  from  the  Court,  with  dignified  reserve.  At  a 
later  day  he  was  a  friend  to  whom  the  Royalists  owed  much,  and  although  he 
disapproved  of  Strafford's  acts,  he  made  a  brave  attempt  to  resist  his  execu- 
tion. He  died  in  1654,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  more  brilliant,  but  not  so 
trustworthy  son,  of  whom  we  shall  afterwards  hear  much  in  Hyde's  own 
story. 


84  THE  SCOTTISH  TROUBLES        [chap,  iii 

Parliament  was  to  meet,  inevitable  as  it  had  now  become, 
really  meant  the  abandonment  of  the  bolder  policy  which 
Stratford's  courage  was  prepared  to  face.  In  the  diminished 
authority  of  that  one  counsellor  of  incomparable  power, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  see  something  of  the  evil  influence 
of  the  Queen,  who  had  long  regarded  his  ascendency  with 
jealousy,  and  who  had  all  the  rancour  of  a  petty  nature, 
with  a  keen  appetite  for  power.  She  was  blind  to  the  real 
condition  of  the  country  and  to  the  danger  that  threatened 
the  Crown,  and  fancied  that  the  shifting  of  ministers,  as  the 
result  of  her  own  clumsy  political  intrigue,  would  increase 
her  personal  authority.  With  the  fatal  deference  to  the 
whims  and  caprices  of  his  wife  which  so  often  led  Charles 
astray,  he  gave,  as  Hyde  informs  us,  the  credit  of  the  con- 
cession to  the  wishes  of  his  subjects  in  the  summoning  of 
Parliament,  to  her  advice. 


CHAPTEE   IV 

HYDE    IN    THE    EARLY    DAYS    OP   THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT 

It  was  on  November  3rd,  1640,  that  the  Parhament  destined 
to  play  so  large  a  part  in  our  history  began  its  long  and 
eventful  career.  It  was  of  far  different  temper  from  that 
Short  Parliament  which  had  met  a  few  months  before,  and 
had  run  such  a  scanty  course.  In  many  places  men  of 
moderate  views  were  set  aside  in  favour  of  more  pronounced 
reformers.  The  Recorder  of  London,  Gardiner,  designed  by 
the  King  as  Speaker,  and  eminently  qualified  for  the  position, 
lost  his  seat  for  London,  where  four  members  of  the  opposition 
were  returned  as  the  City  members.  The  popular  leaders 
made  every  effort  to  prevent  Gardiner's  election  elsewhere. 
Selden  was  elected  for  the  University  of  Oxford  in  place  of 
a  pronounced  adherent  of  the  Court.  The  same  change  was 
seen  in  many  other  elections.  In  place  of  Gardiner,  Lenthal, 
a  lawyer  of  no  particular  distinction,  was  nominated  as 
Speaker,  and  obtained  the  approval  of  the  Crown. 

Hyde  was  again  returned,  but  this  time  for  the  borough 
of  Saltash.  We  do  not  know  what  occasioned  the  change 
of  constituency  ;  but  apparently  he  was  already  sufficiently 
suspected  of  holding  moderate  views,  to  make  it  an  object 
with  some — in  which  they  did  not  succeed — to  invalidate 
his  election.^  His  friendship  for  the  Archbishop  and  his 
attachment  to  the  Church  were  now  too  well  known  to  permit 
of  his  being  trusted  by  the  advanced  reformers.     But  he 

'  Life,  i.  84. 


86     EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [cHAr.  iv 

was  still  on  outwardly  friendly,  if  not  intimate,  terms  with 
those  who  were  the  chief  opponents  of  the  Court.  Meeting 
Pym,  a  few  days  before  the  opening  of  Parliament,  he 
learned  something  of  the  prevaihng  views.    Pym  told  him — 

"  that  they  must  now  be  of  another  temper  than  they 
were  the  last  Parliament ;  that  they  must  not  only  sweep 
the  house  clean  below,  but  must  pull  down  all  the  cobw^ebs 
which  hung  in  the  top  corner,  that  they  might  not  breed 
dust,  and  so  make  a  foul  house  hereafter  ;  that  they  had  now 
an  opportunity  to  make  their  country  happy,  by  removing 
all  grievances,  and  pulhng  up  the  causes  of  them  by  the  roots, 
if  all  men  would  do  their  duties." 

It  was  a  plain  enough  warning  to  Hyde ;  and  he  had  soon 
confirmation  of  it  in  the  first  of  Pym's  speeches,  which 
showed  an  irreconcilable  discontent.  Pym  still  preserved 
an  appearance  of  deference  and  respect  for  the  person  of 
the  King  ;  but  he  made  a  direct  attack  upon  Strafford,  and 
openly  declared  that  his  influence  must  be  decisively  ended. 

None  the  less  Hyde  entered  with  full  zest  upon  the  work 
of  moderate  reform.  He  now  abandoned  his  profession, 
and  threw  himself  whole-heartedly  into  political  business ; 
nor,  hard  as  his  lot  was  to  be  in  that  sphere,  did  he  ever  utter 
a  word  that  indicates  any  regret  for  his  choice. 

The  leaders  of  the  opposition,  which  soon  showed  itself 
determined  to  make  no  terms  with  those  who  might  be 
disposed  to  counsels  of  moderation,  were  Pym  and  Hampden  ; 
and  from  the  impression  which  these  outstanding  figures 
made  upon  him,  in  retrospect,  we  can  gather  the  development 
of  Hyde's  own  views.  Pym  was  valued  chiefly  for  his  great 
experience  in  Parliamentary  business,  to  which  he  joined 
considerable  practical  knowledge  of  administration  derived 
from  service  in  the  Exchequer.  Although  he  sided  with 
the  Puritans,  he  had  none  of  their  fanatical  hatred  of  the 


1640]  PYM   AND   HAMPDEN  87 

Church.  But  Hampden,  while  he  acted  as  Pym's  heutenant, 
had  powers  in  certain  directions  even  greater  than  those 
of  his  chief.  With  a  manner  of  consummate  address,  and 
a  faculty  of  adroit  insinuation,  he  joined  the  deepest  design. 
After  a  youth  of  licence,  he  had  "  suddenly  retired  to  extra- 
ordinary sobriety  and  strictness,"  but  with  nothing  of  the 
grim  exterior  which  we  associate  with  the  character  of  the 
Puritans.  Hampden's  part  in  the  great  fight  against 
ship-money,  which  had  shown  men  that  they  must  trust  for 
the  assertion  of  financial  liberty  not  to  the  Law  Courts, 
but  to  themselves,  had  assured  him  the  confidence  of  all 
who  distrusted  the  Government.  That  confidence  he  used 
with  consummate  prudence  and  ability.  He  rarely  inter- 
vened early  in  a  debate,  but,  when  he  had  watched  the 
position  with  the  eye  of  a  strategist,  "  he  took  up  the 
argument,  and  shortly  and  clearly  and  craftily  so  stated  it, 
that  he  commonly  conducted  it  to  the  conclusion  he  desired." 
None  were  more  skilled  in  dexterously  avoiding  a  decision 
which  he  felt  to  be  inexpedient.  To  outward  seeming 
modest,  he  knew  how  to  appear  "  to  have  no  opinions  or 
resolutions,"  but  only  to  assume  those  of  others  which  he 
was  adroit  enough  to  suggest.  The  long  race  of  versatile 
and  dexterous  party  leaders  may  be  said  fitly  to  take  their 
start  from  one  who  could  compare  with  the  most  skilful 
of  the  list.  With  such  leaders  as  these  opposed  to  him, 
it  was  hard  for  an  untried  new-comer  to  make  an  impression. 
That  at  thirty-two  years  of  age,  Hyde,  with  no  dignity  of 
aristocratic  connection  to  help  him,  was  able  to  make  himself 
a  power  in  the  assembly,  shows  how  high  were  his  aptitudes 
for  statesmanship. 

It  was  only  within  comparatively  narrow  limits  that 
such  independence  as  he  sought  to  maintain  was  possible. 
As  a  whole,  the  House  was  dominated  by  one  opinion.  They 
were  called   together  to  limit   the   prerogative   as  it   had 


88     EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PAELIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

recently  been  interpreted,  and  in  that  general  view  Hyde 
and  Pym  and  Hampden  were  practically  of  one  mind.  For 
good  or  ill,  the  ideal  which  Strafford  had  set  before  him  had 
passed  away,  and  become  impossible  to  realize.  The 
notion  that,  so  long  as  government  was  soundly  and  justly 
administered  without  respect  of  persons,  and  the  needful 
revenue  was  justly  raised,  it  was  not  of  essential  im- 
portance whether  the  Crown  or  Parliament  were  supreme, 
had  disappeared  with  Strafford's  power.  To  the  Parliamen- 
tarian of  the  day,  as  to  the  Whig  of  last  century,  it 
mattered  far  more  that  the  taxes  should  be  regulated 
absolutely  by  Parliament  than  that  they  should  be  just  in 
their  incidence.  According  to  the  most  approved  doctrine 
of  the  Eadical  of  the  present  day,  taxation  should  be  regu- 
lated according  to  the  power  to  bear  it ;  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  taxes  (including  ship-money)  which 
Strafford  imposed  or  contemplated,  complied  admirably' 
with  this  doctrine.  But  the  fundamental  creed  of  the 
Parliament,  now  entering  on  its  eventful  career,  assumed, 
as  an  axiom  beyond  question,  that  the  vital  point  was  that 
the  authority  of  Parliament,  and  of  Parliament  alone,  must 
stand  behind  just,  as  well  as  unjust,  taxes  ;  and  that  the 
whole  foundation  of  liberty  was  founded  upon  that  maxim. 

But  besides  this  axiomatic  creed,  which  was  doubtless 
shared  by  all,  there  was  another  influence,  the  most  potent 
of  all  in  the  hands  of  astute  Parliamentary  tacticians,  which 
affected  the  minds  of  many  both  in  the  House  and  in  the 
nation.  It  was  the  influence  of  a  vague  and  undefined  fear. 
Strafford,  it  was  felt,  was  their  enemy,  profound  in  design, 
prompt  in  action,  unbending  in  resolution.  There  might 
just  be  time  to  master  their  enemy  ;  if  not,  it  must  be  theirs 
to  suffer  at  his  hand.  There  was  no  room  in  one  kingdom 
for  theories  of  government  so  radically  opposed  as  his  and 
theirs ;   and,  in  their  view,  it  was  their  imperative  duty  to 


SIR    THOMAS    WENTWORTH,   FIRST    EARL    OF    STRAFFORD. 

[From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke,  in  the  National  Portrait 

Gallery. ) 


1G40]  IMPEACHMENT   OF   STRAFFORD  89 

show  that  his  was  incompatible  with  the  Constitution,  and 
was  not  only  a  policy  to  be  combated,  but  a  crime  to  be 
crashed  out  of  life. 

It  was  no  wonder,  then,  that  with  scarcely  a  dissentient 
voice,  Strafford  was  impeached  on  November  11th,  was 
arrested  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  same 
day,  and  committed  to  the  Tower,  and  that  in  little  more 
than  two  months  the  articles  of  his  impeachment  were 
drawn  up  and  voted  by  the  House.  Falkland  had  ventured 
to  urge  that  before  proceeding  to  an  impeachment  they 
should  hear  the  charges.  Pym  know  how  to  work  through 
the  suggestion  of  fear.  "  They  could  not  afford  to  wait," 
he  said  ;  and  each  member  felt  that  with  Strafford  at  liberty, 
their  freedom,  perhaps  their  lives,  were  at  stake.  They 
demanded  from  the  Lords  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of 
Strafford ;  and  Hyde  was  one  of  the  committee  to  whom 
the  duty  of  framing  the  charges  was  subsequently  entrusted. 

The  scene  of  Strafford's  arrest  was  a  dramatic  one. 
He  knew  the  threats  against  him,  and  fully  realized  the 
implacable  enmity  upon  which  they  rested.  At  the  request 
of  the  King,  he  had  come  from  the  security  of  his  post  in 
Yorkshire,  as  commander  of  the  army.  That  summons 
was  based  upon  a  pledge  of  safety,  which  proved  miserably 
insecure,  and  the  emptiness  of  which  none,  most  likely, 
recognized  better  than  Strafford.  When  he  heard  of  the 
impeachment,  "  I  will  go,"  he  said,  "  and  look  my  accusers 
in  the  face."  His  entrance  into  the  House  of  Lords  was 
greeted  with  shouts  for  his  withdrawal ;  and  when  he  left 
the  House  the  order  for  his  committal  was  immediately 
carried  out.  Summoned  back,  he  was  bidden  to  kneel  while 
the  order  was  read,  and  passed  from  the  House  in  the  custody 
of  the  Black  Rod.  A  crowd  awaited  him  outside,  "  no  man 
capping  to  him,  before  whom  that  morning  the  greatest  in 
England  would  have  stood  uncovered." 


90     EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

Strafford's  fall  from  power  was  followed  by  the  impeach- 
ment or  dispersal  of  his  associates  and  his  satellites.  Laud 
was  impeached  on  December  18th,  and  had  to  linger  three 
tedious  years  in  the  Tower  before  he  was  brought  to  trial. 
Whatever  part  Hyde  took  in  the  business  of  Strafford's 
impeachment,  he  certainly  must  have  felt  bitterly  the  hard 
measure  dealt  out  to  one  with  whom  his  relations  had  been 
so  intimate,  who  had  befriended  him  so  warmly,  and  in  whose 
rectitude  he  believed  so  implicitly  as  he  did  in  that  of  Laud. 
But  it  did  not  prevent  him  from  joining  heartily  in  other 
reprisals  determined  on  by  the  House.  Finch,  the  Lord 
Keeper,  and  the  most  pronounced  defender  of  ship-money, 
was  impeached — Hyde  emphasizing  the  crime  by  saying  in 
the  course  of  the  debate,  "  'Tis  treason  to  kill  a  judge,  how 
much  more  to  slay  justice  itself !  "  But  the  preliminaries, 
whether  purposely,  as  Hyde  suggests,  or  not,  were  so  prolonged 
that  Finch  had  time  to  withdraw  to  Holland.^  The  same 
opportunity  was  given  to  Windebanke,  one  of  the  Secretaries 
of  State.  Perhaps  it  was  felt  that  such  evidence  as  was 
given  at  his  trial  must  inevitably  involve  their  own  ally. 
Sir  Henry  Vane,  who  was  now  playing  the  double  part  of  a 
servant  of  the  Crown  and  one  of  its  bitterest  opponents. 

But  there  was  other  work  than  that  of  imprisonments 
and  impeachments,  and  for  a  time  Hyde  gave  steady  and 
hearty  co-operation  in  it.  In  his  own  words,  "  He  was  very 
much  in  the  business  of  the  House  ;  the  greatest  chairman 
in   the   committees   of   the   greatest   moment ;    and   very 

'  In  a  passage  which  was  suppressed  in  the  History  of  the  Rebellion,  Hyde 
distinctly  states  that  Finch  was  allowed  to  escape  by  the  connivance  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Parliamentary  party.  He  had  taken  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  courting  their  favour,  and  had  shown  himself  ready  to  help  their  designs, 
although  he  continued  in  the  service  of  the  King.  They  managed  to  prolong 
the  discussion  until  the  House  of  Lords  had  adjourned.  Falkland  was  then 
commissioned  to  impeach  him  ;  but  it  was  known  that  he  could  not  do  it 
till  next  day,  and  meanwhile  Finch  escaped.  Warburton  says  the  passage 
was  suppressed  out  of  deference  to  the  Earl  of  Nottingham  (Finch's 
descendant).     See  History  of  Rebellion  (edit.  1849),  vol.  vi.  pp.  283,  603. 


1641]  HYDE   AND   CROMWELL  91 

diligent  in  attending  the  service  both  in  the  House  and  at 
committees."  From  his  being  a  member  of  a  committee, 
we  are  not  entitled  to  assume  his  support  of  all  its  proposals. 
But  where  he  was  chairman  he  must  have  had  at  least  a 
dominating  voice ;  and  still  more  when  he  was  nominated, 
as  he  frequently  was,  to  report  the  matter  to  the  House  of 
Lords.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  Earl 
Marshal's  Court ;  and  sat  on  the  committee  for  examining 
the  constitution  and  procedure  of  the  Court  of  York  and 
the  Court  of  the  Marches  in  Wales  ;  on  that  regarding  the 
judges'  decision  in  ship-money  ;  and  on  the  committee  for 
examining  the  Bill  for  abolishing  Episcopacy.  In  the  last  he 
used  his  authority,  as  we  shall  see,  in  rather  a  peculiar  way. 

It  must  have  been  early  in  the  session  that  Hyde  found 
himself,  casually,  in  the  chair  on  a  "  private  "  committee 
for  examining  the  legality  of  certain  enclosures  of  common 
lands  formerly  belonging  to  the  Queen,  which  had  been 
given  by  her  to  a  servant,  and  by  him  sold  to  the  Earl  of 
Manchester.  The  disputed  enclosure  was  defended  by 
Manchester  and  his  son  Lord  Mandeville.  One  of  the 
members  of  committee  was  Oliver  Cromwell.  In  the  course 
of  the  proceedings,  Cromwell,  in  the  obtrusive  zeal  of 
partisanship,  conceived  that  the  legal  dispute  had  some 
political  bearing,  and  advertised  his  enthusiasm  for  liberty 
by  stimulating  the  passion  of  the  tenants,  who  conceived 
themselves  to  be  wronged  ;  by  casting  aside  all  pretence 
of  judicial  impartiality,  and  by  attacking  with  indecent 
rudeness  that  most  courteous  gentleman  and  most  cordial 
ally  of  the  popular  party.  Lord  Mandeville.  Hyde  may 
perhaps  be  pardoned  if  his  description  of  the  scene  is  a 
little  coloured  by  later  and  more  serious  grounds  of  antipath}' . 
"  In  the  end,"  Hyde  tells  us,  "  his  (Cromwell's)  whole 
carriage  was  so  tempestuous,  and  his  behaviour  so  insolent, 
that  the  chairman  felt  himself  obliged  to  reprehend."     He 


92     EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

threatened  to  adjourn  the  committee  and  report  Cromwell's 
conduct  to  the  House.  "  Which,"  adds  Hyde,  "  he  never 
forgave ;  and  took  all  occasions  afterwards  to  pursue  him 
with  the  utmost  malice  and  revenge,  to  his  death."  ' 

The  anecdote  must  refer  to  the  very  earliest  weeks  of 
the  session,  because  Hyde  tells  us  that  Cromwell  had  never 
before  been  heard  to  speak  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This 
may  mean  only  that  he  was  not  an  habitual  speaker,  and 
that  Hyde  had  never  heard  him.  But  before  December 
was  over,  Cromwell  had  moved  the  second  reading  of  the 
Bill  for  Annual  Parliaments,  and  had  already  become  a 
familiar  figure  to  most  members  of  the  House. 

As  chairman  of  the  committee  on  what  he  himself  (with 
an  indication  of  its  comparative  unimportance)  calls  the 
"  pageantry  "  of  the  Earl  Marshal's  Court,  Hyde  once  more 
took  up  the  theme  which  had  furnished  him  with  the  matter 
of  his  successful  maiden  speech  in  the  Short  Parliament. 
But  we  may  fairly  say  that  judgment,  in  that  case,  went  by 
default.  There  was  really  no  defence  offered  for  the  court. 
It  was  voted  to  be  "  illegal  and  a  grievance."  It  died  of 
the  resolution  without  any  further  blow,  and  "  never  pre- 
sumed to  sit  afterwards,"  as  a  court  by  which  penalties 
could  be  inflicted.  It  had  served  Hyde  to  good  purpose  ; 
as  many  a  similar  windmill  has  been  found  convenient  to 
be  tilted  at  by  Parliamentary  novices  in  search  of  themes 
for  their  maiden  efforts. 

Hyde's  success  in  business  methods  was  not  always  so 
palatable  to  his  present  allies.  Money  was  required  to 
get  rid  of  the  Scottish  army,  which  remained  on  English  soil, 

'  Cromwell's  more  devout  admirers  naturally  find  the  story  apocryphal, 
which  they  would  do  the  more  heartily,  were  it  not  that  they  find  in  it  an 
edifying  specimen  of  heroic  zeal,  heedless  of  the  decorous  routine  of  judicial 
procedure  to  which  Hyde  was  a  slave.  It  may  be  permissible  to  think  that 
heroism  may  be  better  evinced  than  by  the  methods  of  the  blustering  bully. 
There  is  nothing  in  (Jromwell's  recorded  acts  which  warrants  us  in  pro- 
nouncing the  stor}'  to  be  untrue. 


1041]     EXPEDIENTS  FOR  RAISING  MONEY  93 

and  was  running  up  a  heavy  score  against  the  English 
exchequer.  But  the  most  edifying  protests  were  made 
against  the  possibility  of  procuring  any  advance  from  the 
city  until  "  delinquents  were  brought  to  justice " — the 
usual  and  most  convenient  way  then  adopted  of  describing 
those  who  did  not  accept  the  views  of  the  more  advanced 
advocates  of  Parliamentary  prerogative,  and  who  did  not 
profess  sympathy  with  the  religious  views  of  the  Puritans. 
Hyde,  however,  urged  "  that  he  did  not  believe  the  thing  to 
be  so  difficult  as  was  pretended  ;  that  no  man  lent  his  money 
who  did  not  gain  by  it ;  and  that  it  was  evident  there  was 
plenty  of  money  ;  "  and  he  was  confident  that  a  committee, 
empowered  to  pledge  the  credit  of  the  House,  would  soon 
raise  it.  The  committee  was  appointed  ;  and  found,  as 
Hyde  predicted,  that  it  was  very  easy  to  get  the  money. 
The  city  merchants  professed  themselves  as  only  too  ready 
to  lend  if  they  were  secured  against  the  incubus  of  an  invading 
army,  supported  at  the  nation's  own  expense.  "  The 
report  was  received  with  great  applause  by  the  major  part 
of  the  House,  as  was  reasonably  collected  by  their  counte- 
nance ;  but  it  was  as  apparent  that  the  governing  party 
was  exceedingly  perplexed  with  it,  and  knew  not  suddenly 
what  to  say  to  it."  ^  In  fact,  they  did  not  want  Hyde  to 
get  the  credit ;  and,  still  more  decidedly,  they  did  not  want 
to  get  rid  of  the  Scots,  who  were  the  best  supporters  of  the 
policy  of  stubborn  resistance  to  the  Crown.  So  the  debate 
was  adjourned.  Next  day,  their  good  ally.  Alderman 
Pennington,  afterwards  the  Puritan  Lord  Mayor,  threw 
doubts  upon  the  report,^  and  a  suggestion  so  inopportunely 
practical  was  tactfully  laid  on  the  shelf. 

'  Rebellion,  iii.  92. 

-  Pennington  was  not  above  the  foible  of  which  his  fellow-aldermen  of 
all  generations  have  been  by  common  habit  suspected — that  of  using  long 
words  with  no  particular  meaning.  After  speaking  of  the  conference,  "  In 
the  end,"  he  said,  "  there  was  colloquintida.^'  The  House  made  merry  with 
the  good  alderman's  Latin,  antl  the  debate  evaporated  in  the  laughter. 


94     EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

A  much  more  serious  topic  was  dealt  with  by  another 
committee  in  which  Hyde  was  associated  with  Whitelocke, 
Pym,  and  St.  John,  as  well  as  with  Falkland.  This  com- 
mittee dealt  with  the  illegality  of  ship-money,  and  after  a 
debate  which  St.  John  opened,  and  in  which  all  of  those 
named  vied  with  each  in  the  vigour  and  swelling  rhetoric 
of  their  speeches,  the  condemnatory  motion  of  St.  John 
was  adopted  by  the  House.  A  month  later,  on  January  14th, 
that  motion  was  "  transferred  "  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
a  resolution  was  passed 

"  That  thanks  be  rendered  from  this  House  to  Mr. 
St.  John  and  Mr.  Whitelocke,  the  Lord  Falkland,'  and 
Mr.  Hyde,  for  the  great  service  they  have  performed,  to 
the  honour  of  this  House  and  good  of  the  Commonwealth, 
in  transferring  the  business  of  the  ship-money." 

The  Lords  concurred  in  St.  John's  motion.  So  far  there  was 
no  sign  of  Hyde's  faltering  in  his  energy,  nor  any  outward 
suspicion  of  the  whole-heartedness  of  his  reforming  zeal. 

In  January,  also,  there  was  an  addition  to  the  advisers 
of  the  Crown,  which  might  have  portended  some  possibility 
of  co-operation.  In  Finch's  place,  Littleton  became  Lord 
Keeper ;  Sir  Edward  Herbert  was  advanced  to  the  Attorney- 
Generalship  ;   and,  strangely  enough,  Oliver  St.  John  ^  was 

1  Lord  Falkland,  the  Lucius  Carey  of  Hyde'e  early  friendship,  had  now 
succeeded  to  his  father's  Scottish  peerage,  and  was,  at  the  same  time,  member 
of  the  English  House  of  Commons. 

^  Oliver  St.  John  was  born  in  1598,  and  died  in  1673.  He  was  connected 
with  the  family  of  St.  John  of  Bletsoe,  to  which  the  more  famous  St.  John 
Lord  Boling  broke  also  belonged.  In  earlier  years  he  had  more  than  once 
come  into  collision  with  the  Court,  and  had  been  arraigned  before  the  Star 
Chamber.  But  the  chief  reason  for  his  ardent  support  of  the  extreme 
faction  was  the  fact  that  he  had  married  a  cousin  of  Cromwell,  and  was 
on  the  most  intimate  terras  with  him.  He  was  named  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas  in  1648  ;  but  although  he  was  then  a  keen  supporter  of  the 
Parliamentarian  Party,  he  refused  concurrence  in  the  trial  and  execution 
of  the  King.  In  later  years  he  opposed  Cromwell's  policy,  and,  by  partial 
co-operation  with  Monk,  he  secured  exemption  from  punishment  at  the 
Restoration.     He  died  abroad. 


1641]      ST.  JOHN   AS  SOLICITOR  GENERAL  95 

nominated  Solicitor-General.  Littleton  was  disliked  by  the 
popular  party  for  his  decision  on  ship-money,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  his  fidehty  to  the  King,  although  ultimately 
proved  to  be  real,  was  at  present,  it  would  appear,  some- 
what suspected.  Herbert  was  a  man  whose  captious  temper, 
and  sullen  peevishness,  brought  more  harm  to  the  royal 
cause  than  his  support  was  worth.  But  it  is  hard  to 
explain  the  grounds  either  for  St.  John's  selection,  or 
of  his  acceptance  of  office.  His  opposition  to  the  Crown 
was  the  result  of  offence  for  his  prosecution  before  the 
Star  Chamber  ;  and  although  he  had  suffered  no  penalty, 
his  was  a  spirit  to  brood  deeply  on  any  personal  wrong. 
He  was  one  of  those  natures  to  whom  adherence  to  a 
political  view  necessarily  involves  a  rooted  behef  in  the 
moral  culpability  of  all  who  dissent  from  it.  Moderation 
and  compromise  were  to  him  not  merely  difficult  to 
attain ;  had  they  been  easy,  he  would  have  held  them 
to  be  evil  in  themselves.  To  aggravate  the  friction  was 
his  avowed  aim,  because  so  only  could  he  work  vengeance 
on  the  powers  against  which  his  hatred  had  been  kindled. 
It  was  the  Earl  of  Bedford  who  procured  the  King's 
consent  to  the  nomination  :  but  whatever  was  hoped  from 
it,  it  did  not  lessen  by  one  whit  St.  John's  malignity 
to  the  Court,  but  only  gave  him  new  opportunities  for  its 
indulgence. 

In  February  Hyde  was  intimately  associated  with  an 
incident  that  showed  how  far  the  dominant  party  was  ready 
to  go  in  flagrant  disregard  for  the  decencies  of  political 
warfare.  Berkeley  was  one  of  the  judges  who  had  com- 
mitted the  unpardonable  sin  of  holding  that  the  levying 
of  ship-money  was  justified  by  law.  Hyde  reported  the 
finding  of  the  committee  against  him,  and  Sir  John  Cole- 
pepper  was  appointed  to  impeach  him  before  the  House 
of  Lords. 


96     EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLL\MENT  [chap,  iv 

"  Which  being  clone,  and  it  being  now  Term  time,  the 
Judge  Berkeley  sitting  upon  the  King's  Bench  in  West- 
minster Hall,  the  Lords  sent  Mr.  Maxwell,  the  Usher  of  the 
Black  Rod,  to  fetch  him  off  the  Bench,  which  he  performed 
in  the  face  of  the  Court,  Westminster  Hall  being  then  full 
of  people,  and  brought  him  away  prisoner  ;  which  was  no 
small  amazement  to  the  people  and  others  of  his  profession 


"  1 


No  doubt  the  saunterers  of  Westminster  Hall  had  food 
for  gossip,  and  were  duly  impressed  by  the  majesty  of 
Parliament.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  couple  of 
police-constables  could  at  any  time  remove  a  Lord  Chief 
Justice  from  his  seat  on  the  Bench.  Such  a  proceeding 
savours  as  much  of  burlesque  as  of  serious  drama,  and 
the  judge  does  not  play  the  least  dignified  part  in  this 
comic  rowdyism.  We  need  not  suppose  that  the  fact  of 
Hyde's  presenting  the  report  proves  that  he  concurred  in 
the  subsequent  melodrama. 

But  in  April  Hyde  was  engaged  in  more  serious  work. 
He  then  represented  the  House  of  Commons,  in  a  conference 
with  the  Lords  on  the  Court  of  York  and  the  Court  of  Wales 
and  the  Marches.^  In  this  instance  Hyde  could  speak  with 
full  conviction,  and  the  professional  zeal  of  a  common  lawyer 
was  enlisted  against  these  grave  interferences  with  the  juris- 
diction of  the  ordinary  courts.    Whether  his  speech  does 


1  Rush  worth,  iv.  188. 

-  Lister  takes  a  curious  delight  in  convicting  Hyde  of  some  little  in- 
accuracy in  the  account  which  he  gave  long  after,  aided  only  by  a  wonder- 
fully retentive  memorj',  of  the  Parliamentary  proceedings  ;  and  the  fashion 
is  followed  with  equal  zest  by  Professor  Gardiner.  But  most  readers  ^viU 
find  Hyde's  account  infinitely  more  clear  than  those  which  have  been  pieced 
together  out  of  fragments  from  records  of  very  varying  authority.  In  the 
present  instance,  we  find  that  Hyde  was  more  accurate  in  hia  account  of 
the  sequence  of  events  than  his  critics.  Lister  gives  the  speech  on  the 
Court  of  York,  which  was  delivered  in  April,  after  Hyde's  speech  on  the 
judges,  delivered  in  July.  Later  than  either  he  places  Hyde's  intervention 
in  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill,  which  took  place  in  May  and  June.  To  say 
the  least  of  it,  this  is  confusing  to  the  reader.  Hyde  is  perfectly  correct 
in  the  order  he  gives  to  the  occurrences. 


1641]  THE   COURT  OF  YORK  97 

not  contain  a  considerable  amount  of  exaggeration  may  be 
open  to  doubt.  That  there  had  been  instances  of  high- 
handed action  is  unquestionable  ;  but  after  all,  the  amount 
of  tyranny,  really  worthy  of  the  serious  name,  which 
could  be  executed  by  a  court  which  certainly  had  the  advan- 
tage of  promptitude  and  local  knowledge,  and  the  whole 
expenses  of  which  did  not  exceed  £1300  a  year,  could  hardly 
be  very  great.  It  stirred  the  jealousy  of  a  few  men,  angry 
at  Strafford's  ascendency  ;  but  the  great  mass  of  Englishmen, 
north  of  the  Humber,  probably  had  but  slight  knowledge  of 
its  existence.  At  all  events,  it  did  not  leave  Yorkshire  the 
portion  of  the  kingdom  least  attached  to  the  cause  of  the 
Crown.  But  Hyde  placed  the  grievance  high,  and  demanded 
its  instant  cessation. 

"  Truly,  my  Lords,"  he  concluded,  "  these  vexed  worn- 
out  people  of  the  north  are  not  suitors  to  your  Lordships  to 
regulate  this  court,  or  to  reform  the  judges  of  it,  but  for 
extirpating  these  judges,  and  the  utter  abolishing  of  the 
court.  .  .  .  They  desire  not  to  be  beholden  to  this  court 
hereafter  for  justice,  the  very  administration  of  justice  itself, 
founded  upon  such  illegal  principles,  being  a  grievance  and 
oppression  to  the  subject." 

Hyde's  reminiscence  of  the  speech,  after  an  interval  of 
years,  is  hardly  so  stern  in  its  denunciation.  He  represents 
himself  then  as  admitting  that  the  court  had  been  continued, 
after  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.,  when  it  was  founded  in  order 
to  stamp  out  rebellion,  because  "  it  was  found  that  this 
commission  did  much  good."  Perhaps  Hyde  had  been 
tempted  to  exaggerate  his  language  out  of  deference  to  the 
reforming  zeal  of  his  present  allies.  Later  experience  had 
shown  him  that  there  were  more  serious  evils  than  a  rough 
and  ready  administration  of  justice,  even  although  it  did 
not  run  strictly  according  to  all  the  rules  of  Westminster. 

As  it  was,  his  speech  "  had  a  wonderful  approbation  in 

VOL.    I.  H 


98     EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

both  Houses."  It  was  reported  verbatim  for  the  Lords' 
Journal,  and  it  was  proposed  "  that  Mr.  Hyde  should  have 
pubhc  thanks  for  the  service  he  had  done  the  House."  But 
the  leaders  of  the  opposition  may  have  had  their  suspicions 
that  Hyde's  zeal  was  to  some  extent  simulated,  and  may 
have  noted  signs  on  his  part  of  independent  action.  They 
dissuaded  the  House  from  such  a  compliment  by  saying 
"  that  he  had  too  much  credit  already,  and  needed  not  such 
an  addition  as  he  behaved  himself."  A  critical  attitude 
and  a  spirit  of  moderation  were  no  passports  to  the  confidence 
of  Pym  and  Hampden  and  St.  John. 

If  Hyde  felt  uneasy,  that  feeling  had  extended  to 
others  also.  The  trial  of  Strafford  was  proceeding  with 
all  that  inveterate  vindictiveness  which  nothing  but  a  sense 
of  past  fear  combined  with  present  triumph  could  inspire. 
Racked  by  sickness,  vexed  by  the  failure  of  his  schemes, 
convinced,  against  his  will,  that  he  had  reckoned  upon  a 
sense  of  resolution  in  the  King  which  was  entirely  wanting, 
Strafford  never  showed  the  loftiness  of  his  genius  more 
conspicuously  than  under  that  terrible  ordeal.  Able  as  were 
his  foes,  he  dwarfed  them  by  comparison.  It  was  but  a 
small  part  of  the  triumph  that  he  baffled  them  in  argument, 
and  convinced  them  to  their  own  chagrin  that  it  was  im- 
possible, with  any  show  of  legaHty,  to  convict  him  of  con- 
structive treason.  The  alternative  method  of  a  Bill  of 
Attainder  was  now  proposed — a  method  which  would  avoid 
all  the  cumbrous  delays  of  legal  procedure,  and  would 
cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  dispensing  with  evidence  altogether.' 
It  was  true  that  by  such  a  method  the  Parliament  would 
make  a  precedent  for  a  tyrannj'  beside  which  ship-money 

'  In  his  subsequent  speech  in  reporting  the  Bill  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
St.  John  said  "  That  in  that  ■nay  of  Bill,  private  satisfaction  to  each  man's 
conscience  was  sufficient,  although  no  evidence  had  been  gi\cn  in  at  all  " 
(Clarendon's  History  of  Rthdlion,  in.  140).  It  is  curious  to  remember  that 
these  words  of  odious  cant  were  uttered  by  His  Majesty's  Solicitor-General. 


1641]  BILL   OF   ATTAINDER  99 

and  High  Commission  Court  and  Star  Chamber  were  merely 
passing  nightmares.  But  with  a  pohtical  party  elated  by 
a  sudden  transfer  from  nervous  fear  to  dominance,  scruples 
vanish  in  the  white  heat  of  exalted  enthusiasm. 

As  a  persuasive  to  pressing  on  the  process  of  the  Bill  of 
Attainder,  a  revival  of  old  fears  was  added  to  the  sense  of 
triumph  over  their  foe.  A  plot  to  instigate  the  army  to 
renew  hostilities  with  the  Scots  in  the  interest  of  the  King 
had  been  started  by  Jermyn  and  Suckling,  hangers-on  at 
the  Court  of  the  Queen,  and  had  made  some  progress  amongst 
the  officers.  Goring,^  the  son  of  Lord  Goring,  managed  to 
become  a  confidant  of  the  plotters,  who  found  no  encourage- 
ment from  the  King  ;  and  when  the  scheme  seemed  hopeless, 
Goring  found  that  opportunity  of  betraying  his  associates 
which  was  in  accordance  with  his  known  character.  The 
disclosure  served  the  purpose  of  the  "  Inflexibles  "  by  enabling 
them  to  stir  once  more  the  dread  of  a  military  ascendency, 
which  might  revive  the  influence  of  the  Court. 

The  Attainder  Bill  was  pressed  through  the  House  of 
Commons.  During  its  passage  Hyde  gave  no  sign  that  he 
dissented  from  it ;  and  we  cannot  claim  for  him  the  honour 
of  being  one  of  those  who  were  stigmatized  and  marked  for 
pubHc  odium  by  having  their  names  published  as  "  Straf- 
fordians."  At  the  most  he  may  have  abstained  from  a  vote. 
But  it  is  unquestionable  that,  however  he  may,  at  the  time, 
have  sympathized  with  those  who  were  persuaded  that 
security  to  the  Constitution  could  only  come  by  the  death 
of  Strafford,  whether  by  fair  means  or  by  foul,  Hyde  was 
already  ill  at  ease  amongst  his  associates,  and  soon  came  to 
recognize  the  injustice  of  the  procedure.  Nor  did  he  fail  to 
see,  in  its  proper  measure,  the  baseness  by  which  the  two 

'  It  is  the  first  time  we  meet  with  this  notorious  scoundrel,  whose 
occasional  aid  was  even  more  hurtful  to  the  King  than  his  repeated  treachery. 
Sec  note,  post,  p.  168. 


100  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

Sir  Henry  Vanes/  father  and  son,  lent  themselves  to 
the  concoction  of  a  piece  of  evidence  as  worthless  in  sub- 
stance as  it  was  ignoble  in  origin.  Vane,  the  father,  had 
not  scrupled,  in  the  teeth  of  the  evidence  of  his  fellow- 
councillors,  to  ascribe  to  Strafford  the  use  of  words  in 
Council  wliich  would  have  seemed  to  suggest  to  the  King  that 
the  frame  of  government  might  be  altered  by  military  force. 
He  had  no  documentary  evidence,  and  his  word  was  not 
corroborated.  But  while  the  Bill  of  Attainder  was  being 
discussed.  Vane  the  younger,  with  a  fine  show  of  hypocritical 
repentance,  threw  himself  on  the  mercy  of  the  House ; 
declared  how  he  had  been  entrusted  with  his  keys  by  his 
father  to  search  his  boxes  for  a  document  required  in  some 
family  business  ;  how  he  had  used  those  keys  to  satisfy  his 
curiosity  by  opening  other  boxes  and  examining  other  papers  ; 
how  he  found  a  "  copy  "  of  a  paper  which  supported  his 
father's  uncorroborated  evidence.  The  father  then  played 
his  part  in  the  ignoble  comedy  ;  told  how  he  had  made  notes 
of  the  words  at  the  time  ;  how  he  had,  according  to  order, 
destroyed  them  ;  how  he  had  preserved  a  copy  ;  and  how 
that  copy  had  been  found  by  his  son,  who  now,  in  the 
tenderness  of  his  conscience,  was  unable  to  conceal  the 
discovery,  which  was  to  help  in  the  destruction  of  Strafford, 
the  object  of  their  envenomed  hatred.  A  tawdry  conspiracy 
of  falsehood  could  hardly  have  been  more  clumsily  advised. 
It  was  quite  satisfactory  to  "  the  Inflexibles."  ^ 

•  The  younger  Vane  was  born  in  1613.  After  a  boisterous  youth,  he 
became  an  ardent  puritan,  and  banished  himself  for  a  time  to  New  England, 
where  he  became  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  involved  the  young 
colony  in  bitter  disputes.  Returning  home,  he  obtained  a  lucrative  appoint- 
ment as  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and  afterwards  was  a  member  both  of  the 
Short  and  of  the  Long  Parliaments.  From  the  first  he  acted  closely  with 
the  "  Inflexibles." 

*  Professor  Gardiner  carries  a  show  of  impartiality  to  a  strange  length 
in  connection  with  this  incident.  "  It  is  unnecessary,"  he  says,  "  to  go 
into  the  question  whether  the  younger  Vane  was  justified  in  betraying  the 
secret.  It  was  a  case  of  a  conflict  of  duties"  (Note  on  p.  ,328  of  vol.  ix.). 
We  might  acquiesce  in  this,  but  in  another  than  Profeasor  Gardiner's  sense. 


1641]    BITTERNESS   OF   THE   INFLEXIBLES         101 

But  the  Bill  of  Attainder  had  still  to  pass  the  House  of 
Lords.  It  was  recommended  by  St.  Johu  in  o.  speech  v\;hich 
could  hardly  be  paralleled  except  in  the  bloodthirsty 
virulence  of  the  French  revolution,  St.stufct^' lav/ 'arid  pre- 
cedent were  to  be  disregarded,  as  well  as  evidence. 

"  We  give  law  to  hares  and  deer,  because  they  be  beasts 
of  chase  ;  it  was  never  accounted  either  cruelty  or  foul  play 
to  knock  foxes  and  wolves  on  the  head  as  they  can  be  found, 
because  they  be  beasts  of  prey.  The  warrener  sets  traps 
for  polecats  and  other  vermin  for  the  preservation  of  the 
warren."  ^ 

When  things  were  in  this  critical  position,  Hyde  had  a 
conversation  which  he  records  to  us  fully,  and  which  marks, 
and  doubtless  hastened,  the  uneasy  feeling  of  dissatisfaction 
with  the  action  of  "  the  Inflexibles  "  of  which  the  seeds  had 
already  been  planted  in  Hyde's  mind.  We  must  not  suppose 
that  the  uneasiness  rested  solely  upon  difference  of  political 
principle.  Principle  may  count  for  much,  but  in  human 
affairs,  tastes  and  instincts  count  for  more.  The  methods 
of  these  associates  ;    the  envenomed  cruelty  of  St.  John  ; 

Whether  it  is  justifiable  to  open  private  receptacles  and  examine  private 
papers ;  whether  such  action  is  any  the  better  because  keys  have  been 
entrusted  to  us  for  other  purposes,  and  because  the  trust  has  been  imposed 
in  us  by  a  father ;  whether  it  is  consistent  with  the  dimmest  ray  of  rectitude 
to  conceal  the  possession  of  these  papers  so  long  as  it  suits  us,  and  to  make 
their  discovery  coincide  with  the  declared  invalidity  of  evidence  which  we 
wish  to  bolster  up — that  is  a  question  which  all  men  of  honour  may  agree 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  discuss.  It  may  be  held  equally  unnecessary  to 
discuss  whether  the  concocted  display  of  hypocrisy  between  father  and  son 
merits  any  weight  whatever  as  a  piece  of  evidence,  or  whether  their  malignant 
scheme  of  gratifying  their  feelings  of  personal  revenge  is  compatible  with 
the  common  feelings  of  humanity.  The  plot  was  not  made  more  dignified 
from  the  fact  that  for  a  time  the  father  and  son  exhibited  outward  signs  of 
estrangement  from  one  another.  That  estrangement  was  transitory,  although 
it  revived  in  later  years.  The  elder  Vane  died,  says  Hyde,  "  in  universal 
reproach,  and  not  contemned  more  by  any  of  his  enemies  than  by  his  own 
son." 

'  Professor  Gardiner's  "impartial"  comment  upon  this  is  "Strafford's 
maxims  were  thus  turned  against  himself  "  (vol.  ix.  p.  345).  If  this  is 
impr-rtiality,  we  would  prefer  the  full-blooded  rancour  of  the  partisan.  The 
detestable  cruelty  of  the  words  of  this  English  St.  -Just  can  derive  no  excuse 
from  an  imputation  against  Strafford  which  is  based  on  no  evidence. 


102  EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PAELIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

the  studied  hypocrisy  of  the  Vanes ;  the  tempestuous 
bluster  of  Cfainwel! — all  these  jarred  on  Hyde's  feehngs, 
•vvhrch  be  admits  to  us  again  and  again  were  ardent  and 
impetuotis.'  Difierencc  in  innate  feeling  and  temperament 
breaks  up  more  political  associations  than  difference  in 
constitutional  creed. 

It  was  in  the  end  of  April  that  Hyde  was  accosted  in  a 
place  of  public  resort '  by  the  Earl  of  Bedford,^  who  told  him 
that  there  was  a  friend  of  his  (the  Earl  of  Essex)  who  needed 
his  counsel.  Bedford  fully  recognized  the  evils  of  the  courses 
now  pursued  by  the  extreme  party.  He  said  "  that  the 
business  concerning  the  Earl  of  Strafford  was  a  rock  upon 
which  we  should  all  split."  The  King  was  anxious  to  save  his 
life,  upon  condition  that  he  should  be  no  more  employed  ; 
nay,  if  Parliament  took  his  death  upon  them  by  an  Act  of 
their  own  judicature,  he  would  not  intervene ;  but  his 
conscience  was  pained  at  the  thought  of  being  a  party  to 
the  Act  of  Attainder,  and  of  that  he  begged  to  be  relieved. 
That  the  King's  conscience,  his  honour,  his  sense  of  manliness 
and  self-respect  were  all  alike  pledged  to  Strafford  admits 
of  no  doubt ;  and  human  nature  somehow  sickens  at  a  "  con- 
science "  that  is  always  proclaiming  its  own  difficulties,  and 
seeking  relief  from  pledges  that  become  troublesome.  Be- 
tween that  suspense,  and  unconditional  surrender,  there  is 
little  space.  At  all  events,  such  delicately  poised  cases  of 
conscience  do  not  argue  the  confidence  that  sways  a 
critical  contest. 

'  "  A  place  called  Piccadilly  (which  was  a  fair  house  for  entertainment 
and  gaming,  and  handsome  gravel  walks  with  shade,  whither  very  many  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  best  quality  resorted,  both  for  exercise  and 
conversation  "  {History  of  Rebellion,  i.  392). 

-  This  Earl  of  Bedford  was  Francis  Russell,  born  in  1592.  He  had 
succeeded  to  the  Earldom  in  1627,  and  was  a  leader  in  the  popular  party,  so 
long  as  its  aims  were  moderate.  His  influence  might  have  told  powerfully 
in  favour  of  a  compromise,  but  he  died  ver}'  soon  after  his  interview  with 
Hyde — on  May  9 — the  very  day  on  which  the  King  gave  his  assent  to  the 
Attainder  Bill.     One  of  his  daughters  was  wife  of  Digby. 


1641]      CONFEEENCES   AS   TO   ATTAINDER  103 

Bedford  was  prepared  himself  to  vote  for  the  attainder, 
but  he  scrupled  about  the  conscience  of  the  King.  He  did 
not  despair,  if  only  Lord  Essex  could  be  persuaded  to 
acquiesce,  of  bringing  some  of  his  friends  to  agree  to  a  more 
moderate  course,  which  would  exclude  StrafTord  from  power, 
but  save  him  from  death.  He  had  himself,  he  said,  spoken 
with  Essex,  but  "  found  him  so  obstinate  that  he  could 
not  in  the  least  degree  prevail  with  him."  Could  not  Hyde 
talk  to  Lord  Essex  ^  and  see  whether  he  could  persuade  him 
to  compliance  ?  Hyde  agreed,  and  soon  met  the  Earl  of 
Essex  in  company  with  the  Earl,  just  created  Marquis,  of 
Hertford.^  The  meeting  was  evidently  concerted  with 
Hertford,  because  he  took  his  departure  and  left  Hyde  and 
Essex  alone.  Essex's  first  words  to  him  must  have  been 
disconcerting  to  Hyde.  He  "  began  merrily,"  by  telling 
Hyde  that  he  had  that  morning  (in  his  denunciation  of  the 
Court  of  the  North)  done  a  service  which  he  knew  he  did 
not  intend  to  do  ;  he  had  revived  the  indignation  against 
Strafford,  and  they  would  now  proceed  with  vigour  to  pro- 
secute the  Attainder  Bill.  This  clearly  shows  that  Hyde  was 
understood  to  be  disinclined  to  pushing  matters  too  far 
against   the   falling  minister.    Hyde  disclaimed   any  such 

'  Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex,  was  the  son  of  Elizabeth's  brilliant 
courtier,  whose  trial  and  condemnation  clouded  her  last  years,  and  together 
form  one  of  the  many  mysteries  that  baffle  us  as  to  her  character  and  feelings. 
The  present  Earl  was  now  fifty  years  of  age,  and  had  already  had  a  chequered 
career,  having  been  divorced  under  strange  circumstances  from  his  first 
wife,  who  became  the  wife  of  Carr,  the  notorious  Earl  of  Somerset.  He 
had  few  ties  to  the  Court,  and  was  now  one  of  the  most  powerful  leaders  of 
the  reforming  party.  He  became,  for  a  time,  their  most  trusted  general, 
and  died  in  1646. 

-  William  Sej^mour,  Marquis  of  Hertford,  was  born  in  1588.  In  early 
life  his  ill-fated  marriage  with  Arabella  Stuart  involved  him  in  trouble  with 
the  Court.  After  her  death  he  married  Frances  Devereux,  sister  of  the  Earl 
of  Essex,  and  is  therefore  referred  to,  in  Hj'de's  narrative,  as  Essex's 
"  brother."  His  former  estrangement  from  the  Court  did  not  prevent  him 
from  being  most  loyal  in  his  support  of  the  King,  amongst  whose  most 
chivalrous  adherents  we  shall  find  him  in  later  years.  After  the  Restoration 
the  Dukedom  of  Somerset  was  revived  in  his  favour,  as  he  belonged  to  the 
family  of  the  great  Duke  who  was  Protector  in  the  days  of  Edward  VI. 


104  EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

intention  ;  and  while  he  agreed  that  "  there  were  crimes 
and  misdemeanours  evidently  enough  proved,"  he  pressed 
for  some  milder  remedy  than  death.  Essex  shook  his  head 
and  answered,  "  Stone-dead  hath  no  fellow."  If  Strafford 
lived,  the  King  would  soon  relieve  him  of  all  penalties. 
He  said  that  he  would  talk  no  longer  then,  but  would 
confer  with  Hyde  again.  At  their  next  conference  he  was 
guarded  in  his  talk  ;  and  to  the  objection  against  forcing 
the  conscience  of  the  King,  he  urged  that  the  King's 
conscience  must  be  conformed  to  the  conscience  of  the 
Parliament.  That  was  the  sophistry  to  which  the  party 
had  learned  to  adhere. 

But  the  course  of  the  Bill  through  the  Upper  House  was 
not  smooth.  Digby,*  whose  grace  and  dignity  gained  him 
the  hearts  of  all,  whose  eloquence  gave  him  commanding 
influence,  and  whose  power  in  the  country  was  injured  only 
by  that  perverse  ingenuity  and  those  erratic  ventures 
which  were  a  perplexity  at  once  to  his  allies  and  his  opponents, 
had  in  the  Commons  made  a  sturdy  resistance  to  the  inherent 
injustice  of  the  Bill,  and  prophesied  its  failure  to  secure  the 
assent  of  the  Lords  and  the  King.  He  condemned  ex  post 
facto  legislation. 

"  Let  the  mark  be  set  on  the  door  where  the  plague  is, 
and  then  let  him  that  will  enter  die.  .  .  .  We  must  not 
piece  up  want  of  legality  with  matter  of  convenience,  nor 
the  defaillance  of  prudential  fitness  with  a  pretence  of 
legal  justice."  ^ 

In  the  Lords,  Digby's  father.  Lord  Bristol,  acted  upon  the 
same  principles  as  his  son,  and  was  the  object  for  the 
insults  of  an  angry  and  excited  mob,  who  shouted  as  he  passed 

'  George  Digby,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Bristol,  was  born  in  1612,  and  was 
summoned  to  the  House  of  Lords  during  hia  father's  lifetime  by  his  second 
title  of  Lord  Digby. 

*  Rushworth,  viii.  53. 


1641]  ATTAINDEK   BILL   PASSED  105 

that  they  would  have  justice  upon  him  and  his  "  false  son." 
His  influence  weakened  the  majority,  but  did  not  prevent 
a  decision  adverse  to  Strafford.  Forty-five  peers  only 
attended  the  debate  on  the  third  reading  of  the  Bill  on 
May  8th,  and  of  these  26  voted  in  its  favour  and  19 
against  it. 

Hyde  recognized  the  greatness  of  Strafford  ;  but  he 
failed  to  recognize  the  full  scope  of  Strafford's  aims,  and 
passes  no  condemnation  on  the  fate  which  overtook  him. 
Strafford,  indeed,  played  for  high  stakes,  and  the  political 
ideal  for  which  he  strove  was  one  hidden  from  the  com- 
prehension of  his  contemporaries,  and  was  only  faintly 
shadowed  in  later  theories  of  a  patriot  King.  His  leading 
aim  was  to  get  rid  of  practical  abuses,  and  sources  of 
weakness  in  the  commonwealth,  by  the  speediest  and 
most  direct  methods.  It  was  no  part  of  his  intention 
to  subvert  the  constitution  ;  but  rightly  or  wrongly  he 
believed  that,  amidst  all  the  contrivances  for  adjusting 
the  different  parts  of  it,  there  must  be  an  ultimate  sovereign 
power,  and  that  the  sovereign  power,  in  the  last  emergency, 
rested  with  the  Crown,  and  might  be  exercised  in  the  best 
interests  of  the  nation.  It  was  a  theory  in  unison  with  the 
philosophy  of  Hobbes,  and  linked  with  the  dreams  of 
Bolingbroke  a  century  later.  But  it  was  as  much  alien  to 
Hyde's  theories  of  constitutional  monarchy,  jealously  guard- 
ing the  strictly  legal  prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  as  it  was  to 
the  notions  of  the  uncontrolled  supremacy  of  Parliament, 
which  had  impressed  themselves  upon  the  extreme  Parlia- 
mentarians. Strafford  fell ;  but  in  the  dignity  of  his  isolation 
he  was  supreme. 

It  remained  to  the  King  to  vindicate  his  honour  by 
interposing  his  veto  on  the  Bill.  To  that,  at  all  risks,  he  was 
pledged  by  every  consideration  that  could  bind  a  man  of 
simple  straightforwardness.     He  failed  in  the  greatest  crisis 


106  EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

of  his  life.  We  may  recognize  the  dignity  of  Charles's  later 
conduct  under  misfortune,  his  personal  bravery,  the  sincerity 
of  his  action  in  defence  of  what  he  believed  to  be  the  true 
Church.  But  we  cannot  acquit  him  of  failure  to  the 
pledges  he  had  given  to  his  greatest  servant.  Time-serving 
Bishops,  hke  Wilhams,  might  spin  sophistries  about  a 
public  and  a  private  conscience.  These  do  not  relieve  Charles 
of  his  crowning  error ;  and  the  conscience  of  Juxon  refused 
to  accept  any  such  subterfuge.  Hyde  makes  the  best  excuse 
for  him  that  he  can  ;  but  we  have  only  to  read  between  the 
lines  to  see  that  he  felt  how  much  some  palliation  of  the  act 
was  necessary. 

The  vengeance  of  the  "  Inflexibles  "  was  not  yet  sated. 
They  still  spoke  of  "  the  evil  counsellors  about  the  King, 
who  obstructed  many  gracious  acts  which  would  otherwise 
flow  from  his  goodness  and  bounty  to  his  people."  ^  A  new 
object  of  their  jealousy  was  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  who 
"  was  the  only  man  of  consideration  .  .  .  who  did  not  in  the 
least  stoop,  or  make  love  to  them,  but  crossed  them  boldly 
in  the  House."  ^  Hyde  joined  in  their  complaints,  but  with 
another  object.  He  "  did  really  believe  that  there  yet 
remained  some  evil  counsellors,"  and  desired  that  they 
might  be  named,  and  their  wrongdoing  investigated.  His 
motion  pointed  at  his  old  enemy,  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton ; 
and  the  case  of  the  marquis  was  sufficiently  hazardous  to 
induce  his  confederates  to  avoid  anything  which  would 
weaken  the  position  of  so  useful  an  ally.  The  vague  insinua- 
tions were  dropped  ;  but  there  was  another  score  chalked 
up  against  Hyde,  for  his  intractability. 

Hyde's  opposition  to  the  aims  of  "  the  Inflexibles  "  soon 
became  more  uncompromising  and  declared.  At  the  same 
time  that  the  Royal  assent  was  given  to  the  Bill  of  Attainder, 
it  was  also  given  to  the  Bill  which  prevented  the  Parliament 

1  Rebellion,  iii.  230  -  Ibid.,  iii.  237. 


16411  BREACH  BETWEEN  HYDE  AND  FALKLAND  107 

from  being  dissolved  except  with  its  own  consent.  The 
balance  of  arbitrary  power  was  thus  completely  shifted. 
The  mask  was  now  cast  aside,  and  an  avowed  tyranny  of  a 
temporary  majority,  which  enforced  its  view  by  terror,  was 
substituted  for  the  alleged  excess  of  the  prerogative  of  the 
Crown.  Under  the  pretence  of  temporary  exigency,  the 
balance  of  the  constitution  was  thrown  out  of  gear,  and 
absolute  power  was  grasped  by  a  parliamentary  majority, 
guided  by  a  few  leading  men. 

In  May  and  June,  the  House  was  occupied  with  the 
discussions  on  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill,  which  was  intended 
to  extirpate  episcopacy.  It  had  been  preceded  in  February 
by  a  Bill  for  excluding  the  Bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords, 
in  regard  to  which  those  sworn  friends,  Hyde  and  Falkland, 
had  found  themselves,  for  the  first  time,  sharply  divided  in 
opinion.  Hyde  had  opposed  it ;  Falkland  had  supported 
it,  as  a  concession  which  might  save  the  Church  ;  and  the 
variance  between  these  firm  friends  had  given  much  satis- 
faction to  their  common  foes.^  But  the  Root  and  Branch 
Bill,  which  was  to  sweep  away  the  whole  religious  traditions 
of  the  country,  found  these  two  united  in  firm  opposition. 
The  strength  of  that  opposition  was  fully  understood,  and 
it  was  hoped  to  discount  it  by  putting  Hyde  in  the  chair 
of  the  Committee  of  the  whole  House  on  the  Bill,  and  so 
depriving  him  of  a  vote.  They  reckoned  without  taking 
account  of  the  power  of  the  chairman  to  obstruct  the  business. 
Hyde  proved  himself  to  be  an  adept  in  the  art,  and  he  is 

'  Mr.  Lister,  strangely  enough,  argues  that  Hyde  must  have  voted  for 
the  Bill  of  Attainder  because  Falkland  did  so,  and  because  Hyde  declares 
that  the  difference  on  the  question  of  the  Bishops  was  their  first  variance. 
But  the  Bishops'  Bill  was  the  result  of  a  committee  appointed  in  February, 
and  the  Attainder  Bill  was  not  passed  till  late  in  April,  long  before  which 
any  difference  in  regard  to  the  Bishops' seats  must  have  emerged.  Chrono- 
logical inaccuracy,  it  appears,  is  not  confined  to  Hyde's  defective  memory. 
The  whole  occurrence  of  Falkland's  and  Hyde's  dissidence  is  related  in  a 
later  passage  of  Lister's  book.  So  he  is  not  even  consistent  with  himself, 
much  less  with  historical  truth, 


108  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

honest  enough  to  make  no  secret  of  his  intentional  obstruc- 
tion. 

But  he  still  remained  for  certain  purposes  a  useful  ally 
even  to  the  "  Inflexibles."  His  grasp  of  constitutional 
principle  made  him  the  most  effective  exponent  of  the  evils 
of  the  judges'  decision  upon  ship-money,  and  late  in  May 
he  was  commissioned  to  carry  up  to  the  House  of  Lords  the 
charges  against  the  Barons  of  Exchequer.  He  did  so  in 
a  powerful  speech  on  July  6th.  The  fervency  of  its  language 
may  perhaps  be  due  to  a  natural  wish  on  Hyde's  part  to 
vindicate  the  suspected  sincerity  of  his  crusade  against 
grievances. 

"  There  cannot,"  he  began,  "  be  a  greater  instance  of 
a  sick  and  languishing  commonwealth  than  the  business  of 
this  day.  Good  God !  how  have  the  guilty  these  late 
years  been  punished,  when  the  judges  themselves  have  been 
such  delinquents.  'Tis  no  marvel,  that  an  irregular,  extra- 
vagant, arbitrary  power,  like  a  torrent,  hath  broken  in  upon 
us,  when  our  banks  and  our  bulwarks,  the  laws,  were  in  the 
custody  of  such  persons.  Men  who  had  lost  their  innocence 
could  not  preserve  their  courage  ;  nor  could  we  look  that 
they  who  had  so  visibly  undone  us,  themselves  should  have 
the  virtue  or  credit  to  rescue  us  from  the  oppression  of  other 
men.  It  was  said  by  one  who  always  spoke  excellently, 
that  the  twelve  judges  were  like  the  twelve  lions  under  the 
throne  of  Solomon — under  the  throne — 'in  obedience — but 
yet  lions.  Your  Lordships  shall  this  day  hear  of  six,  who 
(be  they  what  they  will  be  else)  were  no  lions  :  who  upon 
vulgar  fears  delivered  up  the  precious  forts  they  were 
trusted  with,  almost  without  assault ;  and  in  a  tame  and 
easy  trance  of  flattery  and  servitude,  lost  and  forfeited 
(shamefully  forfeited)  that  reputation,  awe  and  reverence 
which  the  wisdom,  courage  and  gravity  of  their  venerable 
predecessors  had  contracted  and  fastened  to  the  places  they 
now  hold  ...  It  is  in  your  Lordships'  power  (and  I  am 
sure  it  is  in  your  Lordships'  will)  to  restore  the  dejected 
broken  people  of  this  island  to  their  former  joy  and  security  : 


1641]  DECLAMATORY  LANGUAGE  109 

the  successors  of  these  men  to  their  own  privileges  and 
veneration,  et  sepultas  prope  leges  revocure.'^ 


There  is  a  good  deal  of  rhodomontade  in  this  speech, 
as  in  others  which  Hyde  delivered  about  the  same  time.  The 
people  of  the  island  were  not  altogether  broken  or  dejected  ; 
and  when  he  looked  back  calmly  in  retrospect,  the  speaker 
saw  how  little  the  description  answered  to  the  truth.  But 
it  reflects  faithfully  the  rather  swollen  rhetoric  which  was  in 
the  taste  of  the  day,  and  conforms  very  carefully  in  its 
elaborate  metaphors  and  its  wealth  of  biblical  allusion 
to  the  prevailing  literary  fashion.  Hyde  knew  perfectly  well 
that  counsels  of  prudence  were  not  likely  to  approve  them- 
selves if  they  were  couched  in  language  of  studied  moderation 
— least  of  all  in  the  case  of  those  who,  like  himself,  were 
suspected  of  lukewarmness.  On  the  same  day  Edmund 
Waller  delivered  a  speech  in  impeachment  of  Mr.  Justice 
Crawley,  which  was  even  more  elaborate  in  its  metaphors, 
and  more  copious  in  its  classical  allusions,  and  which  was 
as  full  of  fiery  indignation  against  the  peccant  judges.  But 
Waller  was  not  by  nature  prone  to  any  very  enthusiastic 
adherence  to  a  political  creed  ;  and  hints  about  moderation 
may  be  detected  amidst  his  glowing  periods,  just  as  much 
as  in  Hyde's.  Hyde  had — what  Waller  had  not — the 
lawyer's  instinctive  dread  of  what  appeared  to  be  infringe- 
ments of  the  law.  But  Hyde  showed  at  a  later  day  that  he 
could  make  really  passionate  indignation  and  ardent  pleading 
breathe  through  every  line  of  a  state  document ;  and  his 
own  efforts  in  that  kind  during  a  real  crisis  of  intense  con- 
flict afford  the  best  contrast  to  the  somewhat  stilted  declama- 
tion of  his  speeches  at  these  conferences,  when  he  had  to 
denounce  these  poor  judges — who,  after  all,  had  perhaps 
acted  accordmg  to  their  lights,  and  had  followed  the  lead 
of  Hyde's  own  uncle,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice.     It  must  not 


110  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

be  forgotten  that  Hyde,  as  spokesman,  was  bound  to  express 
the  feehngs  of  those  whom  he  represented  ;  and  an  orator  of 
thirty-two  years  of  age  may  be  forgiven  for  some  rotundity 
of  epithet. 

But  none  the  less,  these  utterances  emphasize  the  position 
of  Hyde  as  regards  the  main  points  in  the  great  controversy 
of  the  day.  Hyde  from  his  heart  disKked  the  schemes  of 
Strafford,  and  upon  carefully  considered  grounds  he  sincerely 
dreaded  the  dangers  which  they  courted.  He  had  never  had 
any  personal  intercourse  with  Strafford,  and  had  never  come 
within  the  sway  of  his  personal  influence.  To  Laud,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  felt  not  only  the  gratitude  of  a  young 
man  for  early  notice  and  kindly  favour,  but  he  regarded 
his  character  as  enth-ely  unselfish,  he  knew  him  to  be  actuated 
by  the  sincerest  motives,  and  to  the  end  of  his  hfe  he  retained 
a  powerful  impression  of  Laud's  saintly  personality.  But  it 
was  far  more  than  a  merely  personal  feeling  which  guided 
Hyde's  judgment  of  the  two  men.  He  looked  upon  Strafford's 
pohcy  as  equally  hurtful  to  the  Crown  and  to  the  people. 
To  Laud's  ideal  of  Church  government,  Hyde  continued 
throughout  to  feel  a  profound  attachment ;  and  he  found 
in  it  nothing  that  was  inconsistent  with  the  real  interests 
at  once  of  Crown  and  people,  and  made  it  his  aim,  when  in 
power,  to  carry  it  out.  He  saw  in  it  no  real  restriction 
upon  hberty,  but  only  a  means  of  encouraging  order  and 
decorum  in  the  Church.  Instances  which  looked  like 
excessive  stringency  in  enforcing  uniformity  he  was  inclined 
to  ascribe  rather  to  the  ill-ordered  procedure  of  courts 
unknown  to  the  fundamental  laws  of  England.  While,  as 
a  staunch  royalist,  he  felt  the  Crown  to  be  the  appointed 
representative  of  the  people,  and  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  framework  of  the  constitution  rested,  he  thought  the 
straining  of  administrative  authority  under  Strafford  to  be 
an  error  of  judgment  fraught  with  danger  to  the  Crown 


1641]  ESTIMATE   OF   STRAFFORD  111 

itself,  and  his  instincts  as  a  lawyer  made  him  reaUze  that  it 
hazarded  the  power  of  the  Crown  upon  accidental  circum- 
stances, rather  than  based  it  upon  fundamental  principles 
embodied  in  the  law.  He  recognized  Strafford's  con- 
summate ability.  "  He  was  a  man  of  great  parts,  and 
extraordinary  endowments  of  nature,"  is  his  summary  ;  but 
he  felt  the  weakness  of  his  position.  "  It  was  his  mis- 
fortune to  be  of  a  time  wherein  very  few  wise  men  were 
equally  employed  with  him ;  "  and  for  the  attainment  of 
Strafford's  ideal,  a  combination  of  great  minds  and  of 
fortunate  circumstances  was  absolutely  necessary.  He 
wrongly  ascribed  to  Strafford  "  elation  and  arrogance  "  ;  a 
"  disdain  of  other  men  "  ;  a  contempt  "  of  the  forms  of 
business."  In  balancing  the  charges  against  him,  Hyde  seems 
to  ascribe  as  much  importance  to  Strafford's  drastic  and  con- 
temptuous dealing  with  a  selfish  and  dishonest  underling  like 
Mountnorris  ' — whom  Strafford  doubtless  regarded  as  the 
worthless  product  of  poUtical  intrigue  and  ignoble  self-seeking 
— and  to  his  somewhat  rough  and  ready  methods  with  Ely,^ 

'  Francis  Aiinesley  was  born  in  1585,  of  English  descent,  but  very  early 
went  to  Ireland,  and  became  a  conspicuous  specimen  of  the  English  oflSce- 
hunter,  who  battened  on  the  plunder  of  the  Irish.  He  accumulated  a 
vast  number  of  oflSces,  and  enriched  himself  at  every  fresh  distribution  of 
land  in  Ireland.  He  was  the  bane  of  Lord  Falkland  (Lucius  Carey's  father) 
when  he  was  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland,  and  his  turbulent  arrogance  ancl 
greed  eventual!}'  drove  Falkland  from  office.  When  Wentworth  came  over, 
in  1633,  Annesley  (who  had  become  Lord  Mountnorris  in  1628)  found  that 
he  had  met  a  sterner  master.  Wentworth  was  determined  to  stop  the 
shameful  plunder  of  Ireland,  and  to  brush  aside  those  who  stood  in  the  way 
of  his  just  but  firm  rule.  This  vain  and  insolent  peculator  was  tried  by 
court  martial  for  breach  of  discipline,  and  condemned  to  death.  The 
sentence  was  only  formal,  and  he  was  allowed  to  go  to  England,  but  deprived 
of  office.  By  assiduous  courting  of  the  Parliamentary  party  at  a  later  daj', 
he  again  managed  to  procure  the  means  of  plundering  the  Irish,  and  was 
aided  by  Henry  Cromwell  in  his  effort  to  procure  the  reversion  of  his  office 
to  his  son.     He  died  in  1660,  as  Viscount  Valentia. 

*  Adam  Loftus  belonged  to  another  of  those  English  families  who  had 
proBted  by  the  rich  perquisites  of  Irish  office.  His  grandfather,  Edward 
Loftus,  was  a  Yorkshire  landowner,  and  his  father,  Robert  Loftus,  saw  more 
than  one  son  in  high  office.  Adam  Loftus  became  Lord  Chancellor  of 
Ireland  in  1619,  and  was  created  Viscount  Loftus  of  Ely.  He  died  in 
England,  early  in  the  Civil  War. 


112  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

the  Lord  Chancellor  of  L'eland,  as  to  matters  of  such  moment 
as  the  wider  ideals  in  which  Strafford's  mind  was  absorbed. 
The  difference  between  the  two  was  the  fundamental  one 
between  the  lawyer,  devoted  to  the  principles  of  constitu- 
tional monarchy,  and  at  the  same  time  seeing  the  Crown  as 
the  cardinal  point  upon  which  the  constitution  hinged, 
and  the  man  of  action,  less  careful  about  means,  so  long 
as  he  obtained  the  unquestioned  sway  for  his  own  arm, 
which  he  felt  to  be  needful  to  steer  safely  the  ship  of  the 
State. 

But  Hyde  nevertheless  allowed  no  personal  prejudice 
to  blind  him  to  the  inherent  injustice  of  the  Bill  of  Attainder, 
and  makes  no  pleas  in  its  excuse.  However  much  he 
was  divided  from  Strafford,  the  separation  between  himself 
and  the  "  Inflexibles  "  was  a  far  deeper  one.  It  was  felt 
as  much  on  one  side  as  on  the  other.  We  have  already  seen 
indications  of  the  suspicion  in  which  he  was  held  as  one  who 
was  lukewarm  to  the  cause.  He  tells  us  a  curious  instance 
of  that  suspicion.  He  was  walking  one  day  with  Lord  Rothes 
in  Westminster  Hall,  when  the  Earl  suddenly  asked  him 
"  to  walk  towards  the  coach,  and  he  would  overtake  him  by 
the  time  he  came  thither."  When  after  some  delay  they 
rejoined,  the  Earl  told  him 

"  that  he  must  excuse  his  having  made  him  stay  so  long, 
because  he  had  been  detained  only  concerning  him  :  that 
when  he  was  walking  with  him  a  gentleman  passing  by 
touched  his  cloak,  which  made  him  desire  the  other  to  go 
before  :  and  turning  to  the  other  person,  he  said,  that  seeing 
him  walking  in  some  famiharity  with  Mr.  Hyde,  he  thought 
himself  obliged  to  tell  him,  that  he  walked  with  the  greatest 
enemy  the  Scottish  nation  had  in  Parliament,  and  that  he 
ought  to  take  heed  how  he  communicated  anything  of 
importance  to  him."  ^ 

'  Bebellion,  iii.  41. 


1641]  HYDE   AND   FIENNES  113 

If  the  Scots  disliked  Hyde,  the  feeling  was  certainly  amply 
reciprocated. 

But  Hyde  soon  discovered  much  that  intensified  the 
alienation  on  his  own  side.  While  he  was  acting  as  Chairman 
in  the  Committee  of  the  House  on  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill, 
he  was  in  friendly  communication  with  the  advocates  of  the 
Bill,  widely  as  their  views  differed,  and  was  frequently  asked 
by  them  to  dine  with  them  at  Pym's  lodging,  close  to 
Westminster  Hall.  Hampden,  Hazlerigg,  Nathaniel  Fiennes, 
and  others,  met  there  daily  to  inspire  new  enthusiasm  into 
the  laggards.  On  one  occasion  Fiennes  asked  Hyde  to  join 
him  in  a  ride  into  the  fields  to  Chelsea,  and  in  the  course  of 
their  ride  Fiennes  asked  him  "  what  it  was  that  inclined 
him  so  passionately  "  to  the  tottering  fabric  of  the  Church. 
Hyde  professed  the  dictates  of  his  conscience,  and  asked 
what  they  would  place  in  the  room  of  episcopacy.  "  Time 
enough  to  think  of  that,"  said  Fiennes  ;  but  "  if  the  King 
resolved  to  defend  the  bishops,  it  would  cost  the  kingdom 
much  blood,  and  would  be  the  occasion  of  as  sharp  a  war  as 
had  ever  been  in  England."  Hyde  then  learned  how  far 
they  were  prepared  to  go  in  defence  of  a  view  which  was 
radically  opposite  to  his  own  most  cherished  feelings,  and, 
as  he  thought,  to  the  general  opinion  of  the  kingdom.' 

He  soon  learned  more.  He  was  intimate  with  Henry 
Marten,^  and  in  the  unrestraint  of  that  intimacy  Marten 

»  Life,  190. 

-  Henry  Marten  or  Martyn,  the  regicide,  was  son  of  Sir  Henry  Marten, 
who  died  in  the  year  1641,  after  having  won  considerable  repute  as  a  civilian, 
and  having  amassed,  by  dexterous  management  and  untiring  industry,  a 
large  fortune  which  his  son  managed  to  dissipate  in  that  riotous  living  which 
was  only  one  of  the  features  of  his  life  that  made  it  notorious  in  no  very 
seemly  way.  Cautious  as  the  father  had  been,  and  anxious  as  he  proved 
himself  to  be,  to  conciliate  the  reforming  party,  he  had  nevertheless  incurred 
the  suspicion  of  the  "  Inflexibles  "  about  the  time  of  his  death.  The  son 
incurred  no  such  suspicion,  and  had  already  become  notable  for  the  extra- 
vagance of  his  views,  and  for  the  violence  with  which  he  pressed  them — so 
violent,  indeed,  in  his  attacks  on  the  King,  as  to  incur  the  rebuke  of  a  House 
which  found  it  more  politic  to  preserve  a  semblance  of  respect,  however 
hollow.     His  first  anti-monarchical  impulse  is  said  to  have  been  inspired  by 

VOL.    I.  I 


114  EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

allowed  him  to  see  the  truth  as  to  the  aims  of  his  associates. 
As  they  walked  together,  one  day  in  the  summer,  in  the 
churchyard  at  Westminster,  Marten  told  him  "  he  would 
undo  himself  by  adhering  to  the  Court."  Hyde  told  Marten 
that  he  had  no  relation  to  the  Court,  but  was  puzzled  to 
know  how  Marten  found  himself  able  to  act  with  men  whose 
views  Hyde  knew  had  not  his  approval,  and  put  to  him  the 
direct  question,  "  What  he  thought  of  such  and  such  men." 
Marten  "  frankly  answered  that  he  thought  them  knaves." 
"  What  was  it,"  asked  Hyde,  "  that  he  desired  ?  "  Marten 
paused,  and  then  said,  "  I  do  not  think  one  man  wise 
enough  to  rule  us  all."  ^    It  agrees  with  all  we  know  of 

an  occasion  when  the  King  had  ordered  his  expulsion  from  a  gathering  at 
Hyde  Park,  as  a  "  whoremaster  "  and  a  profligate.  Marten  lived  to  be 
rated  in  the  same  terms  by  CromwcU. 

From  the  first  he  acted  with  the  extreme  party  in  the  Long  Parliament ; 
and  his  avowed  contempt  at  once  for  the  decencies  of  life  and  for  the 
solemn  cant  of  his  confederates  often  sorely  scandalized  them.  As  matters 
M'ent  further,  he  became  the  close  confidant  of  Cromwell,  who  employed 
him  for  his  own  ends,  and  roughly  shook  him  off  when  he  proved  refractory  ; 
but  down  to  the  death  of  the  King  (when  Marten  was  one  of  his  judges), 
Cromwell  and  he  were  on  cordial  terms,  and  the  story  is  told,  how  Marten's 
coarse  horseplay  infected  Cromwell,  when  they  flecked  one  another  with 
the  ink  from  the  pens  with  which  they  had  signed  the  Death  Warrant. 
Perpetually  involved  in  personal  disputes,  at  all  times  acting  the  insolent 
and  abusive  bully.  Marten  suffered  the  indignities  usual  to  such  a  character, 
and  on  one  occasion  was  publicly  caned  by  the  Earl  of  Northumberland. 
He  was  the  swashbuckler  of  the  war,  and  the  buffoon  of  Parliament ;  but 
his  buffoonery  was  helped  by  a  ready  wit,  and  hisbluntness  of  plain-speaking 
gained  him  some  popularity.  On  one  occasion  a  motion— directed,  amongst 
others,  against  Marten,  who  habitually  slept  during  debates— was  made 
' '  to_  put  out  such  scandalous  members  as  slept."  Marten  capped  the 
motion  neatly.  "  Mr.  Speaker,  a  motion  has  been  made  to  turn  out  the 
nodders  :  I  move  to  turn  out  the  noddees  "  (Aubrey).  But  his  flagrant 
debauchery  in  the  end  made  him  obnoxious  to  the  Puritans  of  Parliament, 
and  he  incurred  the  contemptuous  anger  of  Cromwell,  as  an  adherent  of 
the  Levellers.  At  the  Restoration  he  managed  to  escape  the  death  penalty, 
saved  largely  by  the  plea  made  on  his  behalf  by  Lord  Falkland.  "  It  was 
an  old  law,"  said  Falkland,  "that  sacrifices  were  to  be  without  spot  or 
blemish.  Now  you  are  going  to  make  an  old  rotten  rascal  a  sacrifice."  He 
died  in  prison  in  1680.  "  An  indomitable  little  Roman  pagan,  if  no  better," 
says  Carlyle.     Hardly,  perhaps,  the  most  heroic  type  of  Roman  paganism. 

1  Professor  Gardiner's  comment  on  this  is  curious.  "  Hyde  was 
shocked,"  he  says,  "  by  such  words.  He  did  not  see  that  the  only  way 
in  which  Charles  could  answer  them  was  by  being  wise  enough  to  govern." 
There  is  no  sign  that  Hyde  was  '« shocked."  He  emphatically  disagreed. 
He  did  not  indulge  in  the  epigrammatic  reflection  suggested  by  Professor 


1641]  HYDE   AND   HENRY  MxVRTEN  115 

Marten  that  he  should  be  ready,  in  what  might  then  seem 
almost  a  paradox,  to  subscribe  to  what,  in  Hyde's  opinion, 
amounted  to  republicanism.  There  is  no  evidence  that  such 
a  scheme  had  as  yet  shaped  itself  in  the  minds  of  any  con- 
siderable party  in  the  House.  But  that  persistent  attacks 
upon  the  powers  of  the  Crown,  however  much  cloaked  in 
language  that  bore  the  formal  mark  of  respect  for  its  majesty, 
should  accustom  men  to  such  doctrines,  was  only  an  inevitable 
consequence.  The  frankness  of  common-sense  manages  to 
penetrate  through  the  veil  of  Parliamentary  phrasing. 
But  its  blunt  assertion  was  new  to  Hyde,  and  showed  him 
to  what  further  alliance  with  the  "  Inflexibles"  would  soon 
conduct  him. 

One  thing  more  confirmed  Hyde  in  his  deter- 
mination to  detach  himself  from  their  cause.  After  the 
"  conference  with  the  Lords,"  '  as  he  was  leaving  the  House, 
Henry  Percy,  the  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,^ 

Gardiner,  because  even  in  Hyde's  day  it  would  have  been  thought  a  fallacy 
hardly  to  be  tolerated  in  the  nursery  or  the  school.  Surely  our  constitution 
rests  upon  some  foundation  a  little  more  safe  than  the  improbable  one  that 
all  its  agents,  at  any  given  moment,  are  "  wise  enough  "  to  discharge  their 
functions  perfectly.  Is  the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons  only  to  endure 
while  its  members  are  all  "  wise  enough  "  ? 

'  Probably  that  of  July  6,  at  which  Hyde's  speech  against  the  Barons  of 
the  Exchequer  was  delivered. 

"  Henry  Percy,  although  the  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
did  not  share  the  Earl's  political  sympathies.  But  he  managed  to  incur 
suspicion  from  both  sides  in  the  struggle.  He  was  a  strong  adherent  of  the 
Queen,  and  shaped  his  course  largely  under  her  direction.  Hyde  was  on 
far  from  cordial  terms  with  him  during  the  Commonwealth,  but  their 
relations  became  better  before  the  end.    He  died  in  1659. 

Professor  Gardiner  pomts  out  that  Hyde  is  in  error  in  naming  Percy  as 
his  introducer  to  the  King,  as  Perc\-  had  fled,  owing  to  his  implication  in 
the  Army  Plot,  in  May,  before  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill  was  discussed. 
The  error  is  not  in  any  case  a  very  serious  one  ;  but  it  would  appear  more 
likely  that  Hyde  errs  in  regard  to  the  date  rather  than  the  person.  The 
King's  remarks  as  to  the  passion  against  the  Church  might  have  had  plenty 
of  basis  other  than  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill ;  and  Hyde's  memory  is  not 
likeh-  to  have  played  him  false  as  to  the  person  who  arranged  a  meeting  so 
momentous  in  its  consequences  upon  his  own  future.  Nor  is  it  certain 
when  Percy  actually  left  the  kingdom.  He  concealed  himself  for  some 
time  after  his  disappearance,  and  delayed  his  journey  upon  some  occasions 
of  his  own,  and  even  found  means  to  return  to  London  [History  of  Rebellion, 
iii.  223). 


116  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

accosted  him,  and  told  him  that  the  King  desired  to  speak 
to  him  that  afternoon.  Hyde  could  scarcely  believe  that 
the  message  was  intended  for  him,  but  was  assured  that 
there  was  no  mistake ;  and  the  same  evening  he  was  intro- 
duced into  the  gallery  at  Whitehall,  and  there  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  King  alone. 

"  The  King '  told  him  '  That  he  heard  from  all  hands 
how  much  he  was  beholden  to  him  :  and  that  when  all  his 
servants  in  the  House  of  Commons  either  neglected  his 
service,  or  could  not  appear  usefully  in  it,  he  took  all  occa- 
sions to  do  him  service  :  for  which  he  thought  fit  to  give 
him  his  own  thanks,  and  to  assure  him  that  he  would 
remember  it  to  his  advantage.'  He  took  notice  of  his 
affection  to  the  Church,  for  which  he  said  '  he  thanked  him 
more  than  all  the  rest ' ;  which  the  other  acknowledged  with 
the  duty  that  became  him,  and  said  '  he  was  very  happy 
that  his  Majesty  was  pleased  with  what  he  did  :  but  if  he 
had  commanded  him  to  have  withdrawn  his  affection  and 
reverence  for  the  Church  he  would  not  have  obeyed  him  ;  ' 
which  his  Majesty  said  made  him  love  him  the  better." 

No  one  knew  better  than  Hyde  how  to  cover  in  a  phrase 
of  apparent  independence,  what  was  really  a  pledge  of 
deferential  loyalty,  and  courteously  to  indicate  that  his 
service  would  be  manly  and  not  servile.  The  King  dis- 
cussed the  "  passion  of  the  House  "  for  the  Root  and  Branch 
Bill,  and  asked  "  if  they  could  carry  it  ?  "  Hyde  trusted 
to  his  own  tactics  of  obstruction,  and  believed  that  it  would 
at  least  be  a  long  process.  "  If  they  do  not  carry  it  before 
I  go  to  Scotland,"  said  the  King,  "  I  will  undertake  for  the 
Church  after  that  time." 

It  was  a  tacit  pledge  between  them.  The  King  received 
full  and  regular  accounts  of  the  debates.  He  knew  well 
how  small  was  the  help  he  got  from  those  in  the  House  who 

'  Lije,  i.  93. 


1641]  HYDE   AND   THE   KING  117 

held  office,  even  when  they  did  not,  Hke  St.  John,  actually 

oppose  the  measures  of  the  Court.     Blind  as  he  often  showed 

himself  to  be  to  the  real  position  of  matters,  he  must  have 

seen  that  it  was  urgently  necessary  to  secure  to  himself  some 

Parliamentary  ally  on  whom  he  could  rely.     His  strongest 

defender  had  fallen,  deserted  at  the  critical  moment  by  the 

King  himself ;  Laud  was  silenced  and  powerless  as  a  prisoner 

in  the  Tower  ;  Finch    and  Windebanke  had  fled,  and  the 

judges  who  had  bent  their  opinions  to  his  service  had  been 

impeached  and  were  awaiting  trial.     Charles  may  almost 

have  been  convinced  of  what  was  self-evident  to  every  one 

else,  that  the  power  of  the  Crown  was  no  longer  the  central 

pivot  of  the  State,  to  which  all  else  was  a  passing  accident, 

but  that  the  monarchy  could  hold  a  semblance  of  power  only 

by  restoring  the  balance  of  the  constitution,  and  throwing 

the   odium   of  encroachment  upon   his   enemies.     He  was 

forced  to  have  recourse  to  some  one  who  had  taken  part  in 

many  of  the  measures  for  the  curtailment  of  the  prerogative. 

From   his    secretary,    Nicholas,  who   was   Hyde's  intimate 

friend,  he  no  doubt  learned  Hyde's  misgivings  about  the 

new  schemes  of  his  former  allies  ;  and  at  least  he  knew  that 

Hyde  was  a  pledged  and  enthusiastic  adherent  of  Laud's 

ideals  in  the  Church,     Whether  he  was  prompted  by  political 

sagacity    or    by    despair,    Charles    could    have    made    no 

Aviser  choice. 

For  Hyde,  on  the  other  hand,  the  proposal  brought 
certainly  no  prospect  of  personal  advantage.  Office  under 
such  a  King  was  a  perilous  hazard,  and  the  formal  acceptance 
of  office  might  not  only  bring  on  him  jealousy  on  the  part 
of  many  of  the  adherents  of  the  Court  of  higher  rank,  but 
would  certainly  make  him  the  mark  of  active  enmitj^  and 
not  mere  suspicion,  on  the  part  of  the  "  Inflexibles."  That 
Hyde  took  the  pledge  of  the  King  from  no  ignoble  motive 
is  certain,  because  no  such  motive  could  exist.     But  two 


118   EAELY  DAYS  OF  LONG  PARLIAMENT  [chap,  iv 

appeals  the  King  could  make  to  him  :  one  to  that  passionate 
reverence  for  the  Crown's  legal  rights,  which  was  an  instinct 
with  him,  and  survived  many  a  strain  ;  and  the  other  to  his 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  Church.  These  were  the  two 
fixed  principles  of  his  Hfe.  They  cemented  the  bond  that 
from  this  time  forth  united  him  to  the  Crown,  and  he  brought 
to  that  service — at  first  a  service  only  of  aid  without  official 
position — an  indomitable  pertinacity  of  purpose,  an  un- 
tiring industry,  and  a  courage  which  never  failed  in  the 
moments  of  direst  struggle  or  of  blackest  outlook.  Others 
changed  and  varied  in  their  allegiance,  sometimes  from 
selfish  motives,  sometimes  from  honest  doubt  and  perplexity, 
and  not  seldom  because  a  variation  of  allegiance  seemed 
to  be  the  likeliest  way  of  bringing  about  a  compromise. 
We  need  pass  no  sweeping  condemnation  on  them.  But 
this,  at  least,  is  certain,  that  out  of  the  countless  actors  in 
that  great  drama,  there  was  not  one  who  steered  his  course 
more  straight,  who  was  more  honest  in  his  first  choice  of 
adherence,  and  who  maintained  more  unchangeably  the 
principles  which  he  had  set  before  himself  from  the  outset 
than  Edward  Hyde.^ 

'  For  the  first  time,  after  Hyde's  influence  began  to  be  felt,  and  in  steadily 
increasing  measure  after  that  influence  became  confirmed,  a  clear  vein  of 
policy  emerges  in  the  conduct  of  the  Royalist  cause.  At  a  later  day  he 
never  swerved  from  his  conception  of  the  line  which  should  bo  followed  in  a 
Restoration  settlement ;  and  it  is  not  the  least  of  his  triumphs  that,  although 
his  personal  career  was  swamped  by  a  combination  of  the  baser  elements  in 
the  Court  of  Charles  II.,  his  own  downfall  did  not  prevent  him  from  leaving 
an  indelible  impress  upon  subsequent  history.  Professor  Gardiner  (vol.  ix. 
p.  387)  judges  the  incident  of  the  meeting  worthy  only  of  a  cursory  mention 
in  a  couple  of  lines.  Charles  and  Hyde  united,  he  thinks,  because  they  had 
much  in  common.  They  "  both  venerated  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church, 
and  neither  had  any  of  the  larger  qualities  of  statesmanship."  It  would 
hardly  be  possible  to  imagine  a  more  complete  misconception  of  Hyde's 
character,  ability,  and  achievement,  or  a  verdict  more  lacking  in  a  sense 
of  proportion.  Truly,  much  rancour  may  be  combined  mth  an  almost 
quaker-likc  profession  of  what  is  called  historical  impartiality. 


CHAPTER  V 

Hyde's  position  becomes  defined 

With  the  execution  of  Strafford,  the  "  Inflexibles"  had  won 
a  notable  triumph  :  with  the  Act  which  made  dissolution 
dependent  upon  the  will  of  the  House  of  Commons,  they 
had  established  a  tyranny  in  their  own  hands.  Nor  were 
they  slow  to  show  the  real  meaning  of  it.  Dire  vengeance, 
with  no  show  of  legal  procedure,  now  fell  on  those  who  ventured 
to  indicate  any  dissent  either  from  their  tenets  or  their  acts. 
Mr.  Tailor,  member  for  Old  Windsor,  for  saying  that  in 
Strafford's  case  they  "had  committed  murder  with  the 
sword  of  justice,"  was  expelled  the  House,  declared  incapable 
of  election,  and  committed  to  prison  at  the  pleasure  of  Parha- 
ment.  This  was  only  one  instance  amongst  many.  Reli- 
gious persecution  was  revived,  and  in  July  a  Roman  Cathohc 
priest  named  Ward  was  put  to  death  with  every  circum- 
stance of  cruelty,  solely  on  account  of  his  creed.  On 
July  29th  they  drew  up  a  Protestation,  which  pledged  all  who 
took  it  to  bind  themselves  to  assist  the  aims  of  the  advanced 
party  and  to  fight  against  all  who  would  oppose  them.  They 
proceeded  to  enforce  their  Protestation  upon  all  and  sundry. 
The  most  powerful  of  all  motives,  that  of  craven  fear,  was 
still  to  be  cherished  in  the  hearts  of  their  adherents,  and  for 
this  purpose  the}'  sedulously  kept  alive  the  rumours  of  a 
plot  of  the  army,  which  was  to  be  employed  to  crush  the 
liberties  of  Parliament.  All  through  the  spring  and  summer 
this  talk  of  an  army  plot  had  filled  men's  mouths.     It  had 


120    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

a  solid  foundation,  but  was  cunningly  exaggerated  and 
misrepresented  in  order  that  the  prevailing  fear  might  have 
no  time  to  slacken. 

j  A  not  unnatural  jealousy  of  Parliamentary  action  had 
spread  itself  amongst  the  army.  They  had  been  used  as 
instruments  by  the  Parliamentary  leaders  ;  but  they  now 
j  found  themselves  the  object  of  almost  contemptuous  dis- 
i  regard.  Their  pay  was  in  arrear ;  and  while  lavish  pro- 
mises and  lavish  payments  were  made  to  the  Scots,  the 
English  soldiery  found  themselves  ill-supplied  and  neglected. 
They  were  dissatisfied  with  the  course  of  affairs,  and  had  no 
mind  to  be  used  as  the  submissive  tools  of  an  arrogant 
Parliamentary  clique.  A  gratuity  of  three  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  in  addition  to  the  pay  of  twenty-five  thousand  a 
month,  was  voted  to  the  Scots  ;  and  this  specially  roused 
the  anger  of  Hyde. 

"  Without  doubt,"  he  writes,  "  when  posterity  shall  re- 
cover the  courage,  and  conscience,  and  the  old  honour  of  the 
English  nation  it  will  not  with  more  indignation  and  blushes 
contemplate  any  action  of  this  seditious  and  rebellious  age, 
than  that  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England,  who  were  not 
guilty  of  the  treason,  should  recompense  an  invasion  from 
a  foreign  contemned  nation,  with  whatever  establishments 
they  proposed  in  their  own  kingdom,  and  with  a  donation 
of  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  over  and  above  all  charges, 
out  of  the  bowels  of  England." 


•'to^ 


It  was  hardly  surprising  that  the  Enghsh  army  should 
feel  uneasy  and  dissatisfied  ;  and  their  feelings  were  fairly 
and  not  immodestly  urged  in  a  petition  to  the  King,  in 
which  they  lamented  the  violence  threatening  his  person 
and  his  Court,  and  "  the  subversion  of  the  whole  frame  of 
government  "  to  suit  the  private  fancies  of  a  few.  They 
professed  that  it  was  far  from  their  thoughts  "  to  believe, 
that  the  violence  and  unreasonableness  of  such  kind   of 


1641]  DISCONTENT   IN   THE   ARMY  121 

persons  can  have  any  influence  upon  the  prudence  and  justice 
of  the  Parhament." 

Their  wish  was  only  that  "  your  Majesty  and  the  Parlia- 
ment may  be  secured  from  such  insolences  hereafter.  For 
the  suppressing  of  which  in  all  humility  we  offer  ourselves 
to  wait  upon  you  (if  you  please)  hoping  we  shall  appear  as 
considerable  in  the  way  of  defence,  to  our  gracious  Sovereign, 
the  Parliament,  our  religion,  and  the  established  laws  of  the 
kingdom,  as  what  number  soever  shall  audaciously  presume 
to  violate  them." 

None  but  a  stickler  for  the  petty  points  of  legal  construc- 
tion could  object  to  such  a  loyal  proffer  of  help  or  could  find 
in  these  words  any  proposal  of  the  army  to  assume  to  itself 
the  authority  of  the  State  ;  and  even  such  a  stickler  cannot 
but  recognize  that  Parliament  itself  had  annulled  the  moral 
force  which  any  pedantic  legal  arguments  could  possess.  The 
army  was  not  a  professional  one  :  it  consisted  of  citizens, 
summoned  in  a  pressing  emergency  to  perform  their  duty 
to  their  King,  and  not  thereby  forfeiting  any  of  their  rights. 
As  such,  the  petition  was  rightly  interpreted  by  the  King  to 
be  a  plea  for  some  settlement  of  the  quarrel  upon  the  basis 
of  a  fair  compromise,  and  a  pledge  that  they  would  loyally 
support  any  such  compromise  which  might  rid  the  country 
of  a  crushing  tyranny,  and  restore  the  vigour  of  the 
law. 

So  far  went  the  scheme  which  was  presented  by  Chud- 
leigh,  an  emissary  from  the  army,  favourably  received  by 
Digby  and  Henry  Percy,  and  confirmed  by  the  King.  But 
another  plot,  less  scrupulous,  and  more  daring,  according 
to  which  the  army  was  to  coerce  the  civil  power,  renew 
active  hostilities  with  the  Scots,  and  virtually  begin  a 
civil  war,  was  promoted  by  others  at  the  same  time.  It  was 
concocted  by  Suckling,  who  could  turn  a  graceful  lyric, 
could  play  the  part  of  a  sprightly  man  of  fashion  and  gay 


122    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

courtier,  but  who  carried  into  political  plotting  the  light- 
hearted  inconsequence  of  his  intrigues  of  debauchery  ;  by 
Goring,  who  associated  himself  in  any  plot,  only  to  betray 
his  comrades  ;  and  by  Jermyn,  who  may  have  seen  in  the 
more  desperate  scheme  a  means  of  further  ingratiating 
himself  with  the  Queen.  As  soon  as  the  agents  in  these 
two  separate  plans  came  together,  and  Jermyn,  Goring,  and 
Suckling  revealed  their  scheme,  they  were  opposed  by  Percy 
and  Digby,  and  discarded  by  the  King.  There  is  not  a 
fragment  of  real  evidence  that  the  more  desperate  scheme 
received  any  countenance  whatever  from  any  one  entitled 
to  speak  on  behalf  of  the  King.^ 

But  to  keep  alive  the  fiction  of  a  purpose  of  armed  inter- 
vention served  the  useful  purpose  of  preventing  the  fears 
of  Parliament  from  going  to  sleep.  These  fears  were  shown 
in  no  very  dignified  way.  Parliament  appealed  to  the  city 
for  protection.  The  trained  bands  surrounded  Westminster. 
Hysterical  excitement  reigned  within  the  House.  The 
members  went  about  as  if  they  were  in  fear  of  their  lives. 
The  creaking  of  a  beam  in  a  gallery  portended  a  new  gun- 
powder plot,  and  the  people's  representatives  ran  scared 
from  the  House,  and  joined  in  the  alarm  of  the  loiterers 
outside.^  The  sight  of  patriots  in  hysterics  is  not  an  edifying 
one. 

It  still  seemed  to  many  not  impossible  that  a  compromise 
might  yet  be  reached,  and  that  the  King  might  be  able 
to  use  the  certain  reaction  against  the  tyranny  of  Parliament 
to  draw  to  his  counsels  some  of  the  moderate  men  in 
the  opposite  ranks.  The  death  of  the  Earl  of  Bedford, 
who,  although  he   had   vigorously  opposed    Strafford,  had 

'  Professor  Gardiner  endeavours  to  prove  that  the  two  schemes  were 
equally  countenanced  by  the  King,  or  at  least  that  his  aversion  to  the  last 
was  only  lukewarm.  The  gossip  of  the  Papal  envoy  is  no  sufBcient 
evidence,  and  it  is  contradicted  by  all  the  more  substantial  proofs,  and 
by  the  whole  probabilities  of  the  case. 

-  Ruahworth,  Strafford's  Trial,  744. 


1641]  EFFORTS   AT   COMPROMISE  123 

endeavoured  to  prevent  his  death,  and  who  was  uneasy  at  the 
threatened  destruction  of  all  the  landmarks  of  government, 
removed  one  who  might  have  greatly  assisted  in  this  way. 
Essex,  whose  popularity  throughout  the  country  was 
unrivalled,  who  had  unequalled  sway  in  the  army,  and  who 
brought  a  stout  arm  and  a  faithful  heart  to  any  cause  he 
served,  was  induced  to  accept  the  post  of  Lord  Chamberlain 
in  place  of  Pembroke,  and  might  have  been  gained  still  more 
had  not  the  Earl  of  Holland,  by  a  singular  lack  of  discern- 
ment, been  preferred  by  the  King  to  Essex  for  the  command 
of  the  army.  There  were  rumours  that  even  Pym  and 
Hampden  might  be  brought  into  the  Council,  and  given 
high  office,  but  such  rumours,  although  they  doubtless 
rested  upon  the  fact  that  such  a  scheme  was  under  considera- 
tion, never  took  actual  shape.  The  Earl  of  Bristol,  wisest, 
most  experienced,  most  cautious  of  living  statesmen,  was 
given  a  post  in  the  Household.  In  such  a  position,  he  might 
be  helped  in  the  efforts  at  conciliation  which  he  was  anxious 
to  make. 

But  Charles  had  now  planned  another  journey  to  Scotland, 
and  cherished  a  hope,  which  proved  to  be  but  a  delusive  one, 
of  obtaining  help  from  that  country.  The  Scots  were  by 
this  time  at  variance  with  the  Parliament,  and  pressed  for 
the  King's  presence  in  their  country,  declaring  that  they 
were  ready  to  spend  their  strength  in  his  defence.  He 
started  on  his  progress  northwards  on  August  10th,  1641,  a 
few  weeks  before  Parliament  adjourned,  as  it  did  on 
September  9th,  for  a  six  weeks'  recess. 
/  The  close  of  the  first  session  gives  to  Hyde  the 
opportunity  of  recounting  and  estimating  the  Acts  to 
which  the  Royal  Assent  had  been  given.  He  emphasizes 
the  magnitude  of  the  concessions  therein  made  by  the 
King ;  and  incidentally  allows  us  to  see  what  was  his 
own   attitude    towards    the  changes    thus   brought   about. 


124    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

The  Act  for  Triennial  Parliaments  he  believes  to  have 
been  of  great  benefit ;  and  although  the  power  granted  of 
issuing  writs  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the  Crown  to  do  so 
was  derogatory  to  the  King,  yet  the  advantages  of  the  change 
were  in  his  view  great  enough  to  outweigh  these  drawbacks/ 
The  Act  abolishing  the  High  Commission  Court,  and  that 
abolishing  the  Star  Chamber  were  both,  he  thinks,  justified 
and  necessary  ;  but  he  regrets  that  in  doing  away  with  the 
High  Commission  its  jurisdiction  in  regard  to  certain  moral 
offences  was  not  supplied  by  some  other  means  ;  and  he 
hints  that  the  reviving  of  the  Star  Chamber  may  hereafter 
be  thought  as  politic  as  its  removal  was  at  that  time. 

The  Act  for  limiting  the  Forest  laws,  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Justice-in-Eyre's  Court ;  that  for  limiting  the  authority 
of  the  King's  Clerk  of  the  Market ;  those  against  the  exaction 
of  fines  in  lieu  of  knighthood  ;  for  abolishing  the  monopoly 
for  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder  ;  and  against  the  Stannery 
Courts,  were  all,  in  Hyde's  opinion,  beneficial,  although  they 
diminished  the  revenue  and  prestige  of  the  Crown.  That 
abolishing  ship-money  he  most  cordially  approves  ;  and 
that  which  gave  to  Parliament  the  sole  power  of  determining 
its  own  dissolution,  he,  with  equal  decision,  condemns.  It 
was  the  last  time  that  he  could  pass  any  judgment  upon 
the  doings  of  the  House,  in  which  praise  and  blame  could  be 
mingled. 

The  King  started  on  his  journey  to  Scotland,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  the  Parliament,  where  there  was  some  dread 
lest  he  should  find  effective  aid  from  the  Scots.  But,  what- 
ever were  his  hopes  or  their  fears,  they  were  alike  falsified 
by  the  result.  He  was  obliged  to  shut  his  eyes  to  much  open 
defiance  of  his  power  amongst  the  Scots  ;  and  although  for  a 
time  he  conceived  that  he  might  look  for  support  to  Argyle 

'  His  tone,  when  discussing  the  repeal  of  the  Act  after  the  Restoration, 
is  considerably  more  condemnatory  of  its  provisions. 


1641]  THE   KING   IN   SCOTLAND  125 

or  Hamilton,  he  soon  found  that  they  were  equally  disloyal, 
and  equally  bent  on  securing  their  own  power  rather  than 
admitting  any  semblance  of  authority  in  the  Crown.  Amid 
the  obscure  dissensions  of  Scottish  factions,  a  scheme  of 
vengeance  on  Argyle  and  Hamilton  seems  to  have  been 
started  by  some  of  their  local  enemies.  It  was  conveniently 
ascribed  to  the  machinations  of  the  royalists,  and  the  "  In- 
cident," as  it  was  called,  served  only  to  increase  the  power  of 
these  two,  the  nominal  supporters,  but  real  custodians,  of  the 
King.  Charles  attempted  still  to  conciliate  their  friendship 
by  a  show  of  courtesy,  and  on  his  departure  from  Scotland, 
raised  Argyle  to  the  rank  of  a  Marquis,  Hamilton  to  that 
of  a  Duke.  But  the  Parliament  found  that,  instead  of 
enemies,  they  had  new  allies  in  these  local  potentates  ;  and 
the  dangers  which  these  northern  supporters  were  supposed 
to  have  incurred  served  as  new  reasons  for  increasing  the 
demands  made  on  the  King  by  the  "  Inflexibles." 

On  October  20th  the  sittings  of  Parliament  began  again. 
The  minds  of  men  were  excited  by  new  rumours  of  danger  to 
the  cause,  industriously  fomented,  and  calling  for  the  presence 
of  an  armed  guard  to  protect  the  House.  But  it  was  soon 
apparent  that  serious  dissidence  had  begun  in  the  ranks  of 
the  reforming  party,  and  that  no  unanimity  was  to  attend 
their  further  debates.  That  circumstance  only  served  as  an 
excuse  for  new  virulence  and  intolerance  ;  for  more  drastic 
browbeating  and  tyranny  ;  and  for  increased  stringenc}^ 
in  pushing  their  revolutionary  demands.  Hyde's  position 
of  estrangement  from  them  was  becoming  every  day  more 
clear,  and  he  did  not  stand  alone.'     He  had  an  ally,  bound 

*  It  is  at  this  point  that  marked  divergence  must  necessarily  arise  in 
regard  to  the  judgment  to  be  passed  upon  the  course  of  events,  and  the 
chief  actors  in  them.  It  is  well  kno^\Ti  that  during  the  greater  part  of  last 
century,  the  pages  of  the  leading  historians  who  depicted  the  time  were 
deeply  tinged,  to  some,  it  seems,  grievously  perverted,  bj'  an  arrogant 
assumption  of  the  unquestionable  truth  of  Whig  principles,  and  by  a  deter- 
mination  to   find   a  glorification   of  these   principles   in   the   unassailable 


126    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

to  him  by  the  closest  ties  of  friendship,  and  of  sympathy,  in 
Falkland  ;  and  every  day  increased  the  number  of  those  who 
were  estranged  by  the  excesses  of  the  dominant  party.  In 
the  Lords,  a  majority  sympathized  with  the  moderates, 
who  followed  the  lead  of  Lord  Bristol,  and  his  son,  Lord 
Digby. 

With  the  beginning  of  November,  a  new  project  was 
started.  This  was  the  Grand  Remonstrance.  The  House  of 
Commons  was  to  make  an  appeal  to  prejudice  by  restating 
all  the  grievances  of  the  reign,  all  the  wrong- doings  of 
dead  statesmen,  all  the  allegations  of  popish  schemes,  and 
all  the  hindrances  that  had  been  placed  in  the  way  of  that 
form  of  religious  doctrine  to  which  alone  they  were  prepared 
to  give  the  name  of  pure  rehgion.  Many  of  the  grievances 
embodied  in  that  Remonstrance  had  been  the  objects 
of  Hyde's  attacks,  and  he  could  not  contradict  their  con- 
demnation. But  the  open  provocation  involved  in  this 
renewal  of  buried  controversies ;  the  virulence  of  the 
references  to  the  Church  ;   and  the  defiance  of  all  precedent 

rectitude  of  those  who  stood  out  as  the  assertors  of  popular  rights  against 
the  Crown  in  the  seventeenth  century,  from  whom  these  principles  were 
deemed  to  be  a  sacred  inheritance.  The  very  exaggeration  of  this  uniform 
tyranny  of  an  accepted  opinion  led  to  a  certain  reaction  ;  and,  more  recently 
the  followers  of  these  historians,  animated  by  the  same  principles  or  pre- 
judices, have  cultivated  an  apparent,  but  not  very  real,  impartiality  of  tone. 
If  we  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  judge  the  course  of  the  struggle,  and  the 
motives  and  characters  of  those  engaged  in  it,  by  ordinary  rules  of  common- 
sense,  apart  from  preconceived  pohtical  ideas,  then  it  may  be  permissible 
to  doubt  whether  avowed  and  straightforward  partisanship  is  not  to  be 
preferred  to  a  painful  strain  of  seeming  impartiality,  which,  while  it  credits 
both  parties  with  fidelity  to  their  ideals,  at  the  same  time  incessantly 
blames  both  for  failing  to  realize  some  vague  scheme  of  comprehensive 
toleration,  which  appears  admirable  to  students  in  retrospect,  but  has  little 
to  attract  the  thoughts  of  men  on  the  brink  of  a  deadly  fight.  Somehow 
this  impartiality  of  the  student  always  contrives,  in  dealing  mth  particular 
incidents,  to  find  opportunity  for  depreciating  the  mental  calibre,  if  not  the 
moral  character,  of  the  adherents  of  the  King,  and  to  detect  something  in 
his  own  past  acts,  to  deprive  his  action  at  any  particular  juncture  of  full 
justification  ;  and,  with  equal  regularity,  discovers  in  Pym  and  his  followers, 
an  unfailing  substratum  of  rectitude  in  their  most  flagrant  acts  of  oppression, 
and  holds  them  justified  by  their  suspicion  of  the  King,  in  their  most  daring 
defiance  of  legality. 


1G41]  THE   GRAND   REMONSTRANCE  127 

in  the  methods  adopted,  ensured  his  dishke  of  the  whole 
project,  and  his  open  hostihty  to  it  in  its  last  stages.^ 

At  first  there  was  impatience  that  the  Remonstrance 
should  even  be  discussed.  Cromwell  upbraided  Falkland 
for  his  desire  to  delay  what  ought  to  occasion  but  httle 
debate.  Cromwell  found  his  calculation  erroneous.  In  the 
last  stage  of  what  had  been  long  and  frequent  debates  often 
interrupted,  the  House  met  as  usual,  at  eight  in  the  morning, 
and  it  was  only  at  midnight  that  the  Remonstrance  was 
finally  adopted,  and  then  only  by  a  majority  of  eleven.  A 
further  struggle  took  place  over  its  publication  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  other  House.  An  attempt  to  procure 
that  concurrence  might  have  resulted  in  defeat ;  at  the  best 
it  would  only  have  stript  the  Remonstrance  of  its  menace 
as  a  sign  of  independent  threatening  on  the  part  of  the 
majority  of  the  Commons.     The  debate  on  the  question  was 

'  The  Remonstrance  may  be  read  in  Rushworth,  iv.  438.  It  was 
accompanied,  when  presented  to  the  King,  by  a  Petition,  which  urged 
that  security  should  be  taken  against  papacy ;  that  the  assent  of  the 
King  .should  be  given  to  the  Bill  which  was  to  deprive  the  Bishops  of 
their  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords  (a  Bill,  be  it  observed,  which  had  not 
yet  received  the  assent  of  the  Upper  House) ;  the  removal  of  "  malig- 
nant "  counsellors ;  and  the  proper  method  of  disposing  of  the  lands 
which  they  presumed  would  be  forfeited  as  a  consequence  of  the  rebellion 
in  Ireland. 

The  Remonstrance  itself  is  a  long  rigmarole  of  206  numbered  paragraphs. 
It  has  had  a  great  name  as  the  solemn  manifesto  of  patriots  strugghng  for 
liberty ;  but  it  is,  in  truth,  a  sorry  production.  It  is  rambUng  and  dis- 
cursive, without  plan  or  arrangement,  a  farrago  of  narrative,  of  ejaculatory 
lamentations,  of  bitter  invective,  and  of  pietistic  aspirations.  The  \\Tongs 
done  to  themselves  are  contrasted  ^vith  the  great  benefits  they  have  done  to 
the  King ;  the  dangers  that  are  to  be  dreaded  from  the  Court,  with  the 
bright  hopes  mspired  by  their  own  efforts.  It  enumerates  certain  schemes 
of  improvement— including  such  proposals  as  one  for  the  improvement  of 
the  herring  fishery,  hardly,  one  would  have  thought,  appropriate  in  the 
discussion  of  a  Constitutional  dispute.  It  looks  as  if  each  of  the  excited 
participants  had  contributed  a  fragment,  stating  his  own  particular 
grievance,  and  as  if  the  whole  were  thro'W'n  together  Mithout  the  labour  of 
revision,  or  any  care  for  logical  sequence.  Not  the  most  profound  respect 
for  the  dignity  of  a  great  popular  movement,  can  find  in  this  confused 
jumble  any  distinction  either  of  language  or  of  sentiment.  It  is  not, 
indeed,  without  an  unconscious  touch  of  humour,  where  it  hints  that 
the  Parliamentary  party  may  have  deserved  some  blame  for  their  undue 
moderation. 


128    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

heated  and  prolonged/  and  led  to  angry  scenes,  and  to 
the  usual  trampling  on  independent  opinion  by  the  leaders 
of  the  "  Inflexibles."  Hyde  claimed  the  right  to  enter  his 
protest ;  and  he  was  joined  by  many  other  members  in  an 
angry  shout  of  dissent.  Passions  became  so  heated  that 
it  seemed  as  if  swords  would  be  drawn.  At  four  in  the 
morning,  after  the  Remonstrance,  the  stormy  debate  upon 
the  publication  was  adjourned.  The  essential  point  had 
been  gained  in  the  adoption  of  the  Remonstrance  itself.  For 
its  publication  other  steps  could  be  taken.  As  they  left 
the  House,  Falkland  twitted  Cromwell  on  his  prophecy  as  to 
the  curtness  of  debate.  Cromwell  told  him  "  that  he  would 
take  his  word  another  time  "  ;  and  gave  him  the  whispered 
confidence,  that  "  if  the  Remonstrance  had  been  rejected, 
he  would  have  sold  all  he  had  the  next  morning,  and  never 
have  seen  England  more  :  and  he  knew  there  were  many 
other  honest  men  of  the  same  resolution."  Hyde  may  be 
forgiven  for  his  comment,  "  So  near  was  the  poor  Kingdom 
at  that  time  to  its  deliverance."  But  Cromwell's  statement 
is  noteworthy,  if  we  can  accept  it  as  sincere.  It  indicates  that 
to  some,  at  all  events,  the  Remonstrance  was  not  altogether 
an  assertion  of  triumph,  prompted  by  the  arrogance  of 
conscious  power,  but  also  a  test  of  the  security  of  a  position 
which  they  felt  to  be  extremely  hazardous.  If  the  last 
hypothesis  is  well-founded,  it  proves  that  the  "  Inflexibles  " 
recognized  how  small  their  support  in  the  nation  was. 

This  happened  on  November  23rd.  On  the  25th  Charles 
returned  from  Scotland,  and  made  what  seemed  a  triumphal 
entrance  into  London,  where  he  was  received  by  the  City 
authorities  on  his  way  from  Theobalds  to  Whitehall.  The 
Lord  Mayor  was  Gurney,  a  firm  adherent  of  the  Royalist 

*  Hyde  says  the  debate  went  on  till  two  in  the  morning  ;  others  put  it 
two  hours  later.  Whitelocko,  possibly  referring  to  a  previous  discussion  on 
the  subject,  says  it  lasted  from  3  y). ra.  till  10  a.m.  next  morning.  The 
diurnals  of  the  various  authorities  often  vary  in  a  perplexing  way. 


1641]  IRISH   REBELLION  129 

party,  and  the  majority  of  the  Common  Council  held  his 
views.  Once  again  the  King  found  himself  in  the  centre  of 
a  welcoming  crowd,  was  received  with  every  circumstance 
of  honour,  and  heard  those  phrases  of  exaggerated  loyalty 
which  were  familiar  to  the  phraseology  of  the  day.  It  was 
an  indication  that  the  views  of  the  "  Inflexibles  "  found 
few  sympathizers  amongst  those  who  represented  the  centre 
of  England's  commercial  interest,  and  who  could  control  her 
financial  position.  Such  a  stronghold  of  royalist  feeling 
had  to  be  captured  before  Pym  could  feel  his  power  secure. 

At  an  opportune  moment  there  came  from  Ireland  an 
account  of  the  Rebelhon  there,  with  every  circumstance 
to  stir  the  alarm,  and  kindle  the  prejudices,  of  those  who 
were  determined  to  identify  the  cause  of  the  King  with 
popish  leanings,  who  represented  episcopacy  and  the  existing 
forms  of  Church  government  in  England  as  only  a  half-way 
house  to  papacy,  and  who  identified  papacy  with  the 
deepest  treachery  and  the  most  savage  cruelty.  It  is  a 
matter  of  common  agreement  that  the  accounts  of  the 
cruelties  of  the  rebels  were  grossly  exaggerated,'  and  that 
the  narratives  were  strange  compilations  of  unsifted  evidence 
and  superstitious  fancies.  But  they  were  sufficient  to 
revive,  in  all  their  alarming  force,  the  stories  of  popish  plots, 
and  rumoured  schemes  of  wholesale  massacre,  which  added 
flame  to  the  fuel  of  popular  excitement,  and  stimulated  attacks 
by  the  mob  upon  all  who  were  supposed  to  have  royalist 
sympathies.  From  day  to  day  the  bodyguard  at  Whitehall, 
and  the  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court,  were  on  the  point 
of  encounters  with  the  apprentices  of  London,  and  the 
disorderly  concourse  of  loiterers  in  the  street.     It  seemed  as 

'  Estimates  were  made  by  some  which  represented  the  deaths  amongst 
the  English  settlers  at  200,000  or  even  300,000  ;  an  unduly  moderate  estimate 
— as  it  was  thought — was  that  of  Hyde,  which  put  it  at  40,000.  It  is  now 
agreed  that  the  deaths  within  two  or  tliree  years  could  not  have  exceeded 
some  figure  between  12,000  and  20,000.     See  Gardiner,  x.  68. 

VOL.  I.  K 


130    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

if,  unbidden  and  spontaneously,  civil  war  might  any  day 
break  out  in  the  streets  of  London. 

Charles  had  returned  with  some  confidence  from  Scotland, 
in  spite  of  ominous  signs  of  opposition  to  his  authority 
there.  On  December  1st,  the  Remonstrance  was  presented 
to  him  at  Hampton  Court  on  behalf  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  member  commissioned  to  do  so  was  Sir  Ralph  Hopton  ; 
but  although  that  sincere  and  loyal  heart  may  have  been 
persuaded  that  the  Remonstrance  was,  in  the  circumstances, 
a  necessary  guarantee  of  their  security,  he  must  have  already 
had  doubts  as  to  many  of  the  schemes  of  his  associates.^ 
The  King  listened  to  the  Petition  in  a  mood  of  confident 
and  almost  disdainful  imperturbability.  He  interrupted  its 
reading  with  an  easy  repudiation  of  insinuations  about 
the  papist  attempts  to  pervert  him,  and  bade  them  be  careful, 
with  reference  to  the  suggestion  as  to  disposing  of  lands  to 
be  forfeited  on  account  of  the  Irish  rebellion,  for  dealing 
with  which  they  had  provided  no  effective  means,  not  "  to 
sell  the  bear's  skin  before  it  was  dead."  The  next  day  he 
returned  to  Westminster,  and  assured  the  House  of  his 
determination  not  only  to  maintain  the  existing  Acts  of 
Parliament,  but  "  to  grant  what  else  can  be  justly  desired 
in  point  of  liberties  or  in  maintenance  of  the  true  religion  as 
here  established." 

But  his  confidence  was  misplaced,  and  he  was  in  dire  need 
of  a  true  counsellor  who  would  honestly  tell  him  the  plain 
facts  of  the  position.  It  soon  appeared  that  no  reliance 
could  be  placed  on  the  support  of  the  city.  Mob-law  then 
prevailed,  and  on  December  21st,  the  power  of  Sir 
Richard  Gurney  and  his  sympathizers  was  swept  away  by 
a  new  election  of  the  Common  Council,  which  left  the  Parlia- 

^  Hopton  seems  to  have  read  to  the  King  only  the  Petition,  and  not  the 
Remonstrance  itseK.  This  last  was  probably  considered  to  be  something 
to  which  all  were  allowed  to  contribute  something,  but  for  the  rambling 
inconsequence  of  which  no  one  in  particular  was  to  be  held  responsible, 


1641]  HYDE'S   FIRST   STATE   PAPER  131 

mentary  party  supreme.  Rumours  of  popish  plots,  and  of 
threatened  armed  intervention  concocted  by  the  papal 
advisers  of  the  Queen,  were  rife,  and  had  exasperated  both 
the  Parliament  and  the  London  crowds. 

No  one  saw  better  than  Hyde  the  need  of  new  and  wiser 
advisers  for  the  King.  Again  there  was  some  expectation, 
which  Hyde  would  willingly  have  seen  realized,  that  the 
King  would  disarm  some  of  his  antagonists  by  calling  them 
to  assume  office  as  his  ministers,  and  it  was  thought  that 
Pym,  Hampden  and  Holhs  might  be  induced  to  accept 
office.^  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Hyde  himself,  for  the 
first  time,  although  without  office,  was  called  on  to  discharge 
an  important  service  for  the  Crown.  The  Parhamentary 
party  had  issued  their  manifesto  to  the  nation  in  the  Grand 
Remonstrance,  and  it  became  necessary  to  issue  a  counter 
manifesto  in  the  form  of  a  reply.  The  history  of  the  incident 
is  curious.  Hyde,  it  appears,  "  only  to  give  vent  to  his 
indignation,  and  without  the  least  purpose  of  communicating 
it  "  had  drawn  up  a  full  reply.  His  intimate  friend  Lord 
Digby  came  to  see  him  "  where  he  was  alone  amongst  his 
books  and  papers ;  "  and  Hyde,  as  the  result  of  their  talk, 
read  to  him  this  reply,  with  which  Digby  was  greatly  im- 
pressed, and  asked  his  leave  to  show  it  to  the  King.  Some 
reply  had  to  be  issued  at  once  :  and  a  few  days  later,  Lord 
Digby  came  to  confess  that,  in  conversation  with  the  King, 
he  had  told  him  of  Hyde's  draft,  and  of  his  own  high  estimate 
of  its  force ;  and  how,  as  a  consequence,  the  King  had 
conjured  Digby  to  send  him  the  paper.  Hyde  was  an- 
noyed at  what  Digby  had  done,  whose  "  over-activity,  to 
which  his  restless  fancy  always  disposed  him,"  was  distasteful 
to  Hyde  :  but  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  deliver  up  the 
paper,  on  condition  of  the  strictest  secrecy,  and  with  the 
stipulation  that  it  should  not  be  published  without  the  advice 

'  Rebellion,  iv.  7C. 


132    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

of  the  King's  Council.  His  conditions  were  observed.  The 
reply  was  adopted  by  the  Council,  and  pubhshed  about  the 
end  of  December.^  As  soon  as  it  was  issued,  the  force  of 
its  arguments,  its  clear  appeal  to  the  arbitrament  of  the 
law  ;  its  studied  moderation  ;  the  dexterity  with  which  it 
indicates  rather  than  too  bluntly  states,  the  excesses  of  the 
Parliament ;  and  above  all,  its  appeal  to  the  sober  sense  of 
justice  in  the  nation — all  showed  that  a  new  mind  was  en- 
listed in  the  service  of  the  King.  Those  at  whom  it  was 
aimed  could  make  no  effort  at  a  reply.  They  could  only 
seek  to  penetrate  the  secret  of  authorship,  that  they  might 
glut  their  vengeance.^ 

The  hope  that  Pym  and  Hampden  might  become  ministers 
of  the  Crown  was  disappointed  ;  but  on  January  2nd,  164f; 
a  change  of  importance  in  his  advisers  was  made  by  Charles. 
Falkland  became  Secretary  of  State,  and  Colepepper  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer.  The  two  men  had  little  in  common. 
Falkland,  with  strong  popular  sympathies,  an  almost  exagge- 
rated dislike  of  any  straining  of  the  prerogative,  and  a  very 
decided  leaning  to  latitudinarian  views  in  rehgion,  had  never- 
theless been  driven,  in  his  dislike  of  the  Parliamentary 
excesses — a  disUke  bred  at  once  of  conscience  and  of  tempera- 
ment— to  see  that  the  authority  of  the  Crown  and  the  safety 

'  This  reply  to  the  Remonstrance,  is  given  by  Nalson  (vol.  ii.  p.  746),  and 
fully  represents  the  case  from  the  King's  point  of  view.  Hyde  {History  of 
Rebellion,  iv.  82)  gives  an  abridged  version  which  quite  fairly  expresses 
its  general  drift.  The  answer  cited  by  Professor  Gardiner,  as  printed  in 
Rush  worth  (vol.  iv.  p.  452),  is  not  Hyde's  answer  to  the  Remonstrance,  but 
a  short  and  summary  reply  to  the  Petition  which  accompanied  the  Remon- 
strance.    It  is  merely  formal,  and  is  of  no  particular  importance. 

It  is  significant  that  Professor  Gardiner  does  not  think  it  necessary  to  say 
one  word  as  to  Hyde's  authorship  of  the  reply  to  the  Remonstrance.  To  pass 
over  in  silence  the  authorship  of  a  State  paper  of  the  first  moment,  which 
marks  a  new  epoch  in  the  King's  dealings  with  the  Parliament,  and  defines 
the  attitude  of  his  principal  adviser ;  to  omit  all  reference  to  the  paper 
itself,  and  to  cite  in  its  stead  a  short  reply  to  a  different  and  less  important 
paper,  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  a  considerable  concession,  in  an  historian 
of  such  minute  accuracy,  to  his  own  overmastering  desire  to  belittle  Hyde's 
part  in  the  history  of  his  time. 

*  The  circumstances  are  fully  narrated  by  Hyde  in  his  Life,  i.  97. 


1642]  FALKLAND   AND  COLEPEPPER  133 

of  the  Church  must  be  defended  ;  and  once  he  had  come  to 
that  conclusion,  his  chivalrous  sentiment  of  loyalty  defined 
his  place  for  him.  To  the  service  of  the  Crown  he  brought 
indomitable  energy  and  perseverance,  absolute  unselfishness, 
and  a  calm  judgment.  He  could  not  bring  to  it  either 
ripe  experience  or  any  constructive  statesmanship.  But  he 
helped  to  secure  to  Charles's  service  the  invaluable  counsel 
and  the  powerful  pen  of  Hyde. 

Colepepper  was  a  man  of  another  mould.  He  had 
few  gifts  of  nature  to  ingratiate  himself  at  Court,  or  to 
make  him  a  dexterous  debater.  But  he  had  courage 
and  confidence,  a  spirit  free  from  prejudice,  and  httle 
likely  to  be  swayed  by  any  overpowering  sense  of  religious 
feeling.  He  could  carry  his  personal  independence  to 
the  length  of  combating,  even  in  those  of  highest  place, 
opinions  with  which  he  did  not  agree  ;  and  if  his  views  were 
expressed  with  what  was  sometimes  inconvenient  emphasis, 
they  nevertheless  managed  to  obtain  ascendency  by  the 
dogged  force  of  his  arguments.  With  no  grace  of  oratory, 
he  could  nevertheless  intervene  with  telling  effect  at  the 
close  of  a  debate,  and  so  marshal  the  arguments  as  to  prevail 
upon  the  general  sense  of  the  House.  Such  men  as  Falkland 
and  Colepepper  were  at  least  an  improvement  upon  the 
wayward  volatility  which  marred  Digby's  brilliant  talents, 
upon  the  treacherous  versatility  of  Vane,  or  upon  the  avowed 
and  sulky  opposition  of  St.  John. 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  Hyde  himself  received 
a  pressing  invitation  from  the  King  to  accept  office.  Again 
he  was  summoned  to  the  royal  presence — this  time  by  Digby  ; 
and  on  being  introduced  he  found  that  the  Queen  was  to 
be  a  partaker  in  the  interview.  The  King  told  him  that  "  he 
was  much  beholden  to  him  for  many  good  services,  and  pro- 
posed to  make  him  his  solicitor-general,  in  the  place  of  him 
(St.  John)  who   had  served   him  so   ill."     Hyde   suddenly 


134    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

answered,  "  God  forbid."  The  King  was  surprised,  and 
asked  his  reason.  "  It  was  not,"  said  Hyde,  "fit  at  this 
time  that  he  should  remove  the  other ;  and  if  he  were 
removed,  himself  was  in  no  degree  fit  for  it."  The  Queen 
pressed  on  him  the  acceptance  of  the  post,  and  declared  that 
good  judges  had  thought  him  "  as  fit  for  it  as  the  other." 
Hyde  remained  unmoved.  The  King  might,  indeed,  he 
admitted  with  his  usual  dexterous  bluntness,  have  better 
filled  the  vacancy  with  another  man  than  St.  John,  but  it 
was  inopportune  to  remove  him,  and  when  that  was  done,  it 
ought  to  be  filled  by  the  ablest  man  of  the  profession,  not 
by  one  so  young  and  inexperienced  as  himself.  The  Queen 
deprecated  such  modesty,  but  Hyde  was  not  to  be  moved. 
"  Madam,"  he  replied,  "  when  you  know  me  better  you  will 
find  me  not  so  modest,  but  that  I  hope,  by  your  Majesty's 
favour,  to  be  made  a  better  man ;  "  but  though  St.  John 
could  never  do  much  service,  he  would  be  more  mischievous 
if  removed.  The  King  then  offered  another  place ;  but 
Hyde's  purpose  was  fixed.  He  was  determined  to  enter  the 
King's  service  without  ofiice  or  reward,  and  so  it  was 
arranged.  With  Falkland  and  Colepepper,  he  was  to  be  in 
constant  consultation,  and  they  three  were  to  guide  his 
Majesty's  affairs.  The  King  "  pledged  himself  very 
solemnly  "  that  without  their  advice  he  would  take  no  step 
in  Parhament.  We  shall  see  presently  how  soon  he  found 
himself  betrayed  into  a  disastrous  breach  of  that  solemn 
pledge.  Hyde  had  now  taken  the  most  momentous  decision 
of  his  life  ;  and  we  can  understand  its  importance  only  by 
estimating  all  that  it  involved.  To  refuse  a  lucrative  post, 
and  especially  one  like  the  Solicitor-Generalship,  which  was 
lucrative  rather  by  fees  than  by  direct  payment  from  the 
Court,  was  probably  a  matter  which  counted  for  little  with 
Hyde.  He  had  a  competence  ample  enough  to  have  warranted 
him  already  in  abandoning  his  profession.  Personally  he 
had  no  greed  for  money,  and  his  position  at  that  time 


1642]  HYDE   REFUSES   OFFICE  135 

involved  no  heavy  expenses.  It  was  much  more  that  he 
should  definitely  range  himself  on  one  side  in  a  fierce  political 
struggle,  and  that  the  side  against  which,  as  he  clearly  saw, 
the  tide  was  running  fast/  Only  two  motives  could  decide 
him.  One  was  personal  loyalty  ;  but  although  that  was  a 
motive  which  his  long  misfortunes,  and  the  deepening  of  his 
character  by  their  means,  strengthened  into  devotion,  it  was 
probably  not  so  ardent  in  the  earlier  days  of  Hyde's  associa- 
tion with  the  King  as  it  was  in  retrospect.  The  other  was 
Hyde's  passionate  attachment  to  the  Church,  and  to  those 
broad  lines  of  the  Constitution,  which  he  conceived  to  be 
entwined  indissolubly  with  all  that  was  strongest  and  most 
distinctive  in  the  Church.''^  In  his  fidelity  to  these  two 
principles  we  may  find  the  key  to  Hyde's  character,  the 
source  of  his  indomitable  courage,  unwavering  alike  in  the 
darkest  gloom  of  misfortune,  and  in  the  delusive  gleams  of 
a  fitful  sunshine  ;  the  explanation  of  the  consummate  skill 
with  which  his  pilotage  steered  the  vessel  into  port  at  last. 
To  picture  Hyde  as  a  pedantic  lawyer,  bound  in  the  meshes 
of  legal  precedent,  is  a  ludicrous  travesty.  The  steadfastness 
which  could  weather  storms,  the  dexterity  which  could  conduct 
long  and  delicate  negociations,  nominally  as  the  representative 
of  a  powerful  sovereign,  in  reality  as  the  discredited  agent  of 
a   vagabond   and   beggarly   crew,   who   masqueraded   as   a 

•  "  He  did  believe  that  the  King  woiild  be  oppressed  by  that  party  which 
then  governed,  and  that  they  who  followed  and  served  him  would  be 
destroyed"  {Life,  i.  110).  But  Hyde's  forecast  does  not  imply  that  he 
thought  that  a  reaction  might  not  come  at  a  later  date.  He  and  his 
associates  might  be  destroyed,  but  the  cause  might  survive. 

^  "  He  had  a  most  zealous  esteem  and  reverence  for  the  Constitution 
of  the  Government,  and  believed  it  so  equally  poised,  that  if  the  least 
branch  of  the  prerogative  was  torn  off,  or  parted  with,  the  subject  suffered 
by  it,  and  that  his  right  was  impaired  ;  and  he  was  just  as  much  troubled 
when  the  Crown  exceeded  its  just  limits,  and  thought  its  prerogative  was 
hurt  by  it,  and  therefore  not  only  never  consented  to  any  diminution  of  the 
King's  authority,  but  alwaj's  wished  that  the  King  would  not  consent  to 
it,  with  what  importunity  or  impetuosity  soever  it  was  desired  and  jDressed  " 
{Life,  i.  109).  Hyde  is  at  least,  explicit ;  but  a  firm  attachment  to  the 
Constitution  is  not  the  same  thing  as  a  stickling  for  legal  forms. 


136    HYDE'S  POSITION  BECOMES  DEFINED  [chap,  v 

Court;  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  which  could  construct 
a  policy  out  of  the  warring  factions  of  a  dissolute  crowd,  and 
could  grasp  chance  occasions  and  impress  his  own  mark 
upon  a  reconstructed  constitution — these  are  not  the  qualities 
that  are  developed  out  of  the  stuff  of  legal  pedantry ;  yet 
all  these  qualities  Hyde  was  yet,  most  indubitably,  to  show. 
From  this  moment,  a  young  man  of  thirty-three,  be  made 
his  choice,  and  almost  alone  amidst  the  shifting  crowd,  he 
maintained  one  unchanging  attitude,  and  pursued  one  con- 
sistent aim.  His  most  malevolent  critics  must  acquit  him 
of  all  sordid  motives,  if  only  for  the  sufficient  reason  that 
such  motives  were  absolutely  non-existent  in  his  case. 
Young  as  he  was,  he  was  sagacious  enough  to  cling  to  his 
faith  in  the  instinctive  bias  of  his  countrymen,  which  would 
ultimately  keep  them  true  to  the  traditions  of  a  balanced 
constitution  and  a  tempered  and  decorous  ordering  of  the 
national  Church  ;  ^  seeking  no  sordid  end,  he  had  ambition 
enough,  of  the  kind  that  was  kept  alive  by  the  conviction 
that  he  could  play  a  notable  part  in  the  great  struggle  that 
was  impending. 

We  have  seen,  and  shall  see  again,  how  ardent  was  the 
affection  between  Hyde  and  Falkland,  although  their  natures 
were  in  many  respects  strangely  different.  But  between 
these  two  and  Colepepper  there  was  little  which  could  deepen 
their  association  in  public  business,  into  anything  like  the 
cordiality  of  warm  friendship.  Colepepper  had  passed  his 
earlier  years  in  the  hard  discipline  of  foreign  service,  and  his 
hot  head  and  rough  courage  savoured  more  of  the  soldier  of 
adventure,  than  of  the  counsellor  who  was  to  steer  a  policy 
in  the  stormy  currents  of  parliamentary  strife.  But  his 
shrewdness  and  independence,  and  the  quick  decision  of  his 


»  "  He  did  really  believe  the  Church  of  England  the  most  exactly  formed 
and  framed  for  the  encouragement  of  learning  and  piety,  and  for  the  pre- 
servation of  peace,  of  any  Church  in  the  world"  {Life,  i.  109). 


1642]    HYDE,   FALKLAND   AND   COLEPEPPEE     137 

judgments,  balanced  his  uncourtliness  of  mien,  and  the 
passionate  turbulence  of  his  temper.  Rehgion  was  with 
him  rather  a  matter  of  pohcy  than  of  conviction.  The 
narrowness  of  his  means  might  have  made  a  smaller  man 
greedy  of  gain  ;  but  his  life  was  simple  and  his  habits  thrifty, 
and  by  these  he  was  saved  from  "  stooping  to  any  corrupt 
ways,  to  which  he  was  not  inclined."  ^  The  picture  which 
Hyde  draws  of  his  association  is  coloured  by  no  warmth  of 
friendship,  but  it  credits  Colepepper  with  all  the  essential 
qualities  that  command  respect. 

On  the  whole,  the  three  acted  very  amicably  together. 
Colepepper's  rougher  methods  were  encountered  by  greater 
skill  and  dexterity,  but  by  an  equally  impetuous  temper,  in 
Hyde,  while  the  more  equable  temperament  of  Falkland  had 
often  to  be  called  in  to  allay  their  strife.  Hyde's  steadiness 
of  policy  swayed  the  other  two  ;  and  in  any  doubtful  point 
of  counsel,  the  King  was  used  to  ask  "  whether  Ned  Hyde 
were  of  that  opinion."  This  implies  that,  when  matters 
were  fully  discussed,  it  was  "  Ned  Hyde  "  who  often  gave 
the  casting  vote.  But  the  more  free  access  of  Falkland  and 
Colepepper  to  the  King  frequently  gave  an  opportunity  for 
the  adoption  of  measures  of  which  Hyde  disapproved. 

'  Clarendon,  Life,  i.  106. 


CHAPTER  VI 

INCREASING    EXASPERATION,    AND    THE    WAR    OF    WORDS 

In  the  hands  of  his  three  new  advisers,  it  might  have  been 
hoped  that  the  King's  affairs  would  proceed  more  smoothly. 
Falkland  had  high  aims,  unresting  industry,  and  was  above 
all  suspicion  of  corruption.  Colepepper,  with  all  his  rash 
impetuosity,  was  honest  and  clear-sighted  ;  and  Hyde  had 
a  steady  conviction  as  to  the  course  which  it  was  wisest  for 
the  King  to  pursue.  But  their  fears  were  now  excited 
by  underlying  suspicions,  and  it  was  soon  found  that  a 
steady  pursuance  of  the  poHcy  which  was  agreed  upon 
amongst  these  three  advisers  was  made  impossible  by 
these  fears  and  these  suspicions,  which  invaded  the 
precincts  of  the  Court. 

The  brawls  and  disturbances  about  Whitehall  were 
matters  of  daily  occurrence,  and  mob-law,  which  found 
encouragement  in  the  violent  dissension  amongst  those  in 
authority,  stimulated  each  party  to  new  schemes  for  their 
own  protection,  and  new  projects  of  attack  upon  their 
opponents.  The  ParUament  surrounded  themselves  with 
armed  guards,  and  passed  resolutions  against  the  "  malig- 
nants  "  who  surrounded  the  King ;  the  Court  summoned 
its  adherents  to  arm  themselves  for  their  own  protection, 
and  the  cavaliers  and  templars  drove  off  the  mobs  who  were 
clamouring  at  the  gates  of  Whitehall.  Amongst  those  who 
frequented  the  Court  of  the  Queen  there  were  fierce  spirits 
who  cared  little  for  constitutional  ideals,  and  were  inclined 


1642]  LORD  DIGBY  139 

to  take  more  drastic  measures  for  crushing  the  tyranny  of 
the  Parliamentary  majority,  and  the  crowds  of  rioters 
whom  that  majority  encouraged  to  browbeat  their  opponents. 
There  were  rumours  of  schemes  for  impeaching  the  Queen, 
and  to  these  fiercer  spirits  it  seemed  that  such  schemes 
could  best  be  met  by  bold  reprisals.  It  is  to  this  we  must 
ascribe  the  rash  step  now  taken  by  the  King,  without  that 
consultation  with  those  selected  advisers  to  which  he  had 
solemnly  pledged  himself. 

Lord  Digby  was  amongst  the  chief  of  those  whose  rashness 
was  to  be  feared.  As  the  son  of  Lord  Bristol,  who  had 
encountered,  with  dignit}',  the  enmity  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  when  at  the  height  of  his  favour,  Digby  had 
little  reason  to  court  the  favour  of  the  Crown,  and  had  with- 
drawn from  the  crowd  that  sought  ofiSce  or  emolument. 
He  had  disliked  the  policy  of  Strafford,  and  had  shown  his 
sympathy  for  those  who  organized  a  Parliamentary  resist- 
ance. He  had  helped  in  the  impeachment  of  the  great 
minister,  and  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
defenders  of  the  popular  cause.  But  although  not  of  the 
Court,  Digby  was  a  polished  courtier,  endowed  by  nature 
with  all  the  mental  and  physical  gifts  that  fitted  him  for 
the  part.  A  born  aristocrat,  he  had  no  mind  to  see  distinc- 
tions of  society  levelled,  or  to  have  the  rank,  the  privileges, 
or  the  luxuries  of  his  order  trampled  on  by  the  common  herd. 
He  was  too  proud  to  stoop  to  injustice,  and  had  manfully 
resisted  the  sinister  vengeance  of  the  Attainder  Bill.  The 
breach  between  himself  and  the  "  Inflexibles  "  grew  rapidly 
wider ;  his  opposition  to  their  schemes  more  marked  ;  and 
while,  in  common  with  his  father,  he  found  himself  the  mark 
of  the  insults  of  the  mob,  who  discerned  in  him  the  proudest 
of  the  order  whose  privileges  they  wished  to  curtail,  he  found 
the  King  ready  to  accept  his  service  and  was  called  up  to 
the  House  of  Lords  just  when  the  dominant  majority  in  the 


140  INCREASING  EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

Commons  were  preparing  to  mete  out  to  him  the  discipline 
kept  ready  for  refractory  members.  Endowed  as  he  was, 
he  soon  found  means  to  conciliate  the  friendship  of  the 
Queen,  and  became  involved  in  those  romantic  schemes  that 
were  to  save  her  from  the  vengeance  of  her  sworn  foes. 
There  could  be  no  surer  passport  to  the  confidence  of  the 
King. 

Neither  the  personal  graces,  the  brilliant  wit,  nor  the 
freedom  of  manners;  of  Digby  were  likely  to  win  for  him  the 
friendship  of  Falkland,  whose  simplicity  of  nature  framed 
a  far  different  ideal  of  aristocratic  duty.  But  Hyde's  know- 
ledge of  the  world  tolerated,  and  Colepepper's  mihtary 
bluntness  was  attracted  by,  an  ally  whom  neither  entirely 
trusted.  They  were  soon  to  realize  more  clearly  the  danger 
in  which  he  might  involve  their  master  and  themselves. 

"  He  was  a  man,"  says  Hyde,  "  of  very  extraordinary 
parts  by  nature  and  art,  and  had  surely  as  good  and  excellent 
an  education  as  any  person  of  that  age  in  any  country ;  a 
graceful  and  beautiful  person ;  of  great  eloquence  and 
becomingness  in  his  discourse,  and  of  so  universal  knowledge 
that  he  never  wanted  subject  for  a  discourse."  ^  To  these 
gifts  Digby  added,  unluckily,  a  strain  of  affectation,  and, 
with  "  an  ambition  and  vanity  superior  to  all  his  other  parts," 
a  "  confidence  peculiar  to  himself,  which  sometimes  intoxi- 
cated and  transported  and  exposed  him."  Such  a  character 
was  an  inconvenient  ally,  in  a  time  when  wary  dealing  was 
above  all  things  needful.  It  was  he  and  the  Queen  who 
inspired  the  new  act  of  senseless  recklessness. 

On  January  3rd,  Herbert,  the  Attorney-General,  was 
instructed  to  impeach  of  high  treason  before  the  Lords, 
Lord  Kimbolton,  the  son  of  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  and  five 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Pym,  Hampden,  Hollis, 
Hazlerigg  and  Strode.     At    the  same  time  the  House  of 

'  Eebellion,  iv.  127. 


1642]   ATTEMPTED  ARREST  OF  FIVE  MEMBERS  141 

Commons  received  a  message,  asking  for  their  arrest.  The 
message  to  the  Lords,  however  dangerous,  was  strictly  legal. 
But  the  arrest  was  a  matter  which,  accordmg  to  prece- 
dent, lay  with  the  House  of  Commons  alone.  The  Lords 
returned  a  temporizing  answer  ;  the  Commons  appealed  to 
their  privilege. 

The  next  day  (January  4th)  the  King  took  a  far  more 
questionable  step.  Entering  a  coach  at  Whitehall,  he 
summoned  his  armed  retinue  to  follow  him,  drove  to  the 
House,  and  barely  announcing  his  presence,  entered  the 
House,  took  his  place  at  the  Speaker's  Chair,  and  asked  that 
the  members  denounced  should  be  handed  over  to  him. 
They  had  already  received  full  warning,  had  been  forced  to 
withdraw,  and  were  shortly  safe  from  arrest  in  the  city. 
Their  rooms,  however,  were  visited  and  their  papers  sealed, 
only  to  be  broken  open  by  the  order  of  the  House.  The 
King  and  the  Commons  were  now  openly  at  defiance.  He 
found  his  authority  scouted  ;  they  believed  their  personal 
liberty  to  be  in  danger.  The  King,  trusting  to  the  loyalty  of 
the  Lord  Mayor,  Sir  Richard  Gurney — who  no  longer  com- 
manded a  majority  in  the  Common  Council — visited  the 
Guildhall  next  day  in  a  vain  attempt  to  intimidate  the  City 
by  his  presence ;  but  he  was  received  in  the  streets  where 
he  had  so  lately  been  acclaimed,  with  sullen  looks  and  shouts 
of  "  Privilege  of  ParHament."  For  the  moment  he  was  not 
moved  from  his  purpose. 

The  incident  came  as  a  shock  to  Hyde,  Falkland,  and 
Colepepper.     These  three 


"  Without  whose  privity  the  King  had  promised  them  he 
would  enter  upon  no  new  counsel,  were  so  much  displeased 
and  dejected  that  they  were  inclined  never  more  to  take 
upon  themselves  the  care  of  anything  to  be  transacted  in  the 
House  ;  finding  already  that  they  could  not  avoid  being 
looked  upon  as  the  authors  of  those  counsels,  to  which  they 


142  INCEEASING  EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

were  so  absolute  strangers,  and  which  they  so  perfectly 
detested." ' 

Digby's  was  the  ill-omened  advice  to  which  the  counsels 
were  due,  and  to  his  rashness  he  added  the  guilt  of  dissimula- 
tion. When  the  impeachment  was  brought  before  the  Lords, 
he  whispered  to  Kimbolton,  next  to  whom  he  sat — 

"  That  the  King  was  very  mischievously  advised  ;  and 
that  it  would  go  very  hard,  but  he  would  know  whence 
that  counsel  proceeded  ;  in  order  to  which,  and  to  prevent 
further  mischief,  he  would  go  immediately  to  his  Majesty."  ^ 

The  mischief  was  already  done.  Only  "  the  abstracted 
consideration  of  their  duty  and  conscience,  and  of  the  present 
ill  condition  the  King  was  in  "  kept  Hyde  and  his  companions 
longer  at  their  task.  The  very  straits  of  their  master  made 
them  staunch.  Though  often  tried,  Hyde  never  again 
allowed  such  vexation  to  quench  the  ardour  of  his  loyalty. 

It  was  to  little  purpose  that  the  King,  who  speedily 
recognized  the  ill  consequences  of  his  act,  endeavoured  to 
soothe  the  susceptibilities  of  the  House,  and  professed  his 
respect  for  their  privileges.  New  guarantees  must  now  be 
found  to  secure  them  against  such  attempts  in  future  ; 
new  advances  on  the  part  of  the  reformers  seemed  to  be 
imperatively  called  for. 

Such  was  the  position  when  the  King  resolved,  with  his 
wife  and  family,  to  quit  Whitehall  for  Hampton  Court, 
whence  on  January  13th,  he  moved  to  Windsor.  He  was  not 
to  see  Whitehall  again  until  the  fatal  day  in  January,  1649. 

The  scheme  of  impeachment  had  virtually  failed,  and  its 
forced  abandonment  left  the  majority  in  Parliament  in 
possession  of  the  field.  Two  questions  now  became  chiefly 
prominent,   as   those   upon   which   that   majority   were   to 

•  Rebellion,  iv.  158.  *  Ibid.,  iv.  154. 


1642]  THE   MILITIA   QUESTION  143 

display  their  triumph.  These  were  the  BiU  for  the  Exclusion 
of  the  Bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  settlement 
of  the  authority  which  should  dispose  of  the  military  forces 
of  the  country — the  Mihtia  question,  as  it  was  generally 
called.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  according  to  all 
legal  and  constitutional  principle,  the  control  of  any  military 
force  lay  with  the  Crown.  But  the  expenses  it  involved 
could  be  supphed  only  by  the  House  of  Commons.  Special 
exigencies,  however,  might  arise,  which  would  require  the 
Crown  to  exercise  its  right  without  the  preliminary  financial 
guarantee  ;  and  it  was  the  special  prerogative  thus  involved 
that  was  at  once  the  foundation  of  Strafford's  plans,  and  of 
the  fears  and  suspicions  of  the  Commons.  Subsequent 
developments  of  constitutional  practice  made  better  pro- 
vision against  this  essential  element  of  contradiction.  But, 
apart  from  all  this,  it  is  none  the  less  mdisputable  that, 
according  to  the  constitution,  the  supreme  command  of 
any  military  force  rested  with  the  Crown. 

The  question  was  constantly  in  dispute  during  these 
winter  months.  Two  Bills  for  its  settlement  had  been 
introduced,  and  had  made  a  certain  progress.  In  connection 
with  one  of  these  Hyde  brings  a  distinct  charge  of  bad  faith 
on  the  part  of  St.  John,  and  of  treachery  to  his  duty  as  a 
servant  of  the  Crown.  The  Bill  proposed  to  settle  the 
question  of  military  command.  Hyde  argued  that  such  a 
settlement  was  unnecessary,  as  that  command  clearly  be- 
longed to  the  Crown.  St.  John  declared  that  this  was  not 
warranted  by  the  law,  and  that  his  duty  as  a  minister  was 
to  insist  upon  a  decision,  so  that  all  doubt  should  be  removed. 
With  a  view,  nominally,  to  remove  doubts,  but  in  reality  to 
have  the  question  settled  in  favour  of  Parliament,  he  intro- 
duced a  Bill  providing  that  the  control  should  rest  with , 

the  rest  being  left  blank  to  be  filled  in  by  Parliament.     But 
now  the  procedure  by  Bill  had  been  abandoned,  and  in  its 


144  INCREASING   EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

place  there  was  proposed  a  Militia  Ordinance,  vesting  the 
authority  in  the  hands  of  persons  to  be  named  by  Parliament. 
The  question  of  the  confirmation  of  this  Ordinance  was  that 
which  was  now  urged  upon  the  King,  along  with  the  confirma- 
tion of  the  Bishops'  Exclusion  Bill. 

Unfortunately  the  three  chosen  advisers  did  not  agree 
in  regard  to  these  two  crucial  questions.  Colepepper,  sup- 
ported by  Falkland,  as  well  as  by  the  immediate  advisers  of 
the  Queen,  was  in  favour  of  a  concession  on  the  Bishops' 
Exclusion  Bill,  and  a  firm  refusal  of  the  Militia  Ordinance, 
while  Hyde  thought  that  the  Bishops'  Exclusion  was  the 
more  dangerous  of  the  two,  but  that  both  proposals  should 
be  resisted.  Supported  by  the  Queen,  the  view  of  Cole- 
pepper  prevailed.  The  royal  assent  was  given  to  the 
Exclusion  Bill  on  February  13th.  The  "  Inflexibles  "  were 
elated,  and  the  Royalists  proportionably  dismayed.  Hyde 
feared,  as  proved  to  be  the  case,  that  whatever  the  King 
decided  as  to  the  Militia  Ordinance,  the  Parliament  would, 
as  the  event  proved,  "  wrest  it  out  of  his  hand  without  his 
consent."  At  the  same  time,  Digby,  who  was  chiefly 
responsible  for  these  and  previous  disastrous  counsels,  fled 
to  the  Continent. 

The  King  already  recognized  that  the  real  power  had 
practically  passed  out  of  his  hands.  This  had  made  him 
anxious  to  be  elsewhere  than  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
of  the  Parliament,  at  Whitehall.  For  himself,  he  would  not 
have  fled  before  personal  danger,  but  his  fears  were  aroused 
by  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  imminent  danger  to  the 
Queen.  In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Parliament,  she 
left  the  country  for  the  Hague  before  the  end  of  February, 
and  the  King  now  resolved  to  do  what  he  could  to  rally  his 
adherents  to  his  side  by  putting  a  greater  distance  between 
himself  and  Parliament.  Orders  had  been  issued  from  the 
House,  which  virtually  assumed  the  validity  of  the  Militia 


1642J      THE   KING   WITHDRAWS   TO   YOEK  145 

Ordinance,  and  placed  the  towns  which  favoured  the 
Parhament's  cause  under  the  command  of  those  whom  they 
could  trust.  With  this  view  Sir  John  Hotham  was 
despatched  to  hold  the  fortifications  and  stores  at  Hull. 

In  taking  his  departure  from  Whitehall,  the  King  had 
desired  to  have  the  Prince  in  his  company,  while  the 
Parliament  were  determined  to  hinder  this  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power.  The  Prince  was  now  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  Marquis  of  Hertford  at  Richmond,  and  to  Hertford 
they  sent  a  message  forbidding  the  removal  of  the  Prince. 
Once  more  Hyde  was  called  in,  and  by  his  shrewd  manage- 
ment, which  prevented  rash  action  on  the  part  of  the  King, 
the  company  of  his  son  was  secured.  He  persuaded  the 
King  to  withdraw  an  unwise  letter,  and  to  remain  satisfied 
with  the  substantial  advantage.  Charles  now  retired  towards 
York,  leaving  Hyde  to  watch,  and  to  keep  him  informed  on 
the  course  of  events.  He  was  to  forward  draft  replies  to  the 
missives  which  the  Parliament  might  send,  and  these  drafts 
the  King  promised  to  copy  in  his  own  hand.  In  reaUty  he 
was  to  be  a  hostage  in  the  hand  of  the  enemy. 

Hyde  did  not  shrink  either  from  the  danger  or  the 
incessant  and  anxious  labour  that  this  charge  involved.  It 
was  the  more  irksome  because  he  thought  the  King's  absence 
a  mistake.  The  Parliament  strongly  resented  it,  and  sent 
a  remonstrance  to  the  King.  Hyde  again  dreaded  a  rash 
reply  ;  and  through  his  close  friend,  Lord  Grandison,^  he 
managed  to  apprize  the  Kmg  of  the  impending  message, 
and  to  urge  him  to  temporize  in  his  reply.     He  had  still 

'  William  Villiers,  second  Viscount  Grandison,  was  the  son  of  Sir  Edward 
Villiers,  and  nephew  of  the  great  Duke  of  Buckingham.  His  mother  was 
niece  of  Oliver  St.  John,  who  was  created  Viscount  Grandison,  with  remainder 
to  the  issue  of  this  niece,  whose  son,  William  Villiers,  thus  became  second 
Viscount.  He  was  a  man  whose  loj'alty  was  above  reproach,  and  whose 
character  Hyde  held  in  the  highest  esteem,  and  this  deepened  the  grief 
with  which  he  viewed  the  evil  notoriety  which  the  daughter  of  his  old  friend 
attained  as  mistress  of  Charles  II.  She  became  Lady  Castlemaine,  and 
afterwards  Duchess  of  Cleveland. 

VOL.   I.  L 


146  INCREASING   EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

hopes  that  some  amongst  the  Parhamentary  party,  such  as 
Essex  and  Pembroke,  might  have  come  to  recognize  how 
much  they  had  to  lose  in  the  flood  of  revolutionary  change, 
submerging  all  social  distinctions,  and  might  be  ready  to 
help  towards  a  compromise.  Hyde  would  have  had  the 
King  stay  to  make  hazard  of  that  hope ;  but  the  King's 
mind  was  fixed,  and  on  March  3rd  he  began  his  progress 
to  York. 

The  conduct  of  the  Parliament  might  not  unreasonably 
have  shaken  the  confidence  of  the  King,  as  to  his  personal 
safety  in  their  company. 

"  The  practice  both  Houses  had  gotten,  to  send  for 
persons  by  a  sergeant-at-arms  upon  any  suggestions  of  light 
discourse,  or  upon  general  and  ungrounded  suspicion,  by 
which  they  were  compelled  to  give  long  attendance,  if 
they  were  not  committed  to  prison,  had  so  terrified  all  con- 
ditions of  men,  that  very  few  resorted  to  Court."  ^ 

We  have  abundant  instances  to  justify  these  and  even 
stronger  words.  Benyon,  a  London  citizen,  for  petitioning 
that  the  City  Government  should  not  be  altered,  was  con- 
demned to  lose  his  franchise  ;  to  be  for  ever  disqualified  for 
of&ce  ;  to  pay  a  fine  of  £3000 ;  and  to  be  imprisoned  for  two 
years.  Sir  Edward  Deering,  whose  inflated  eloquence  had 
so  tickled  his  own  ears,  that  for  the  half  contemptuous 
applause  it  met  with,  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  carried 
far  on  the  current  of  revolution,  at  last  found  himself  the 
object  of  impeachment,  for  presenting  a  very  reasonable 
petition  from  the  freeholders  of  Kent.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  London  mob,  the  market  porters,  and  the  shopmen's 
wives  were  profoundly  thanked  for  petitions,  in  which  they 
ascribed  their  poverty  to  the  wickedness  of  the  "  malignants," 
and  plainly  threatened  that  if  these  were  not  removed  they 

•  Lije,  i.  128. 


1642]  TYKANNY   OF   PAELIAMENT  147 

would  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands/  Sir  Ralph  Hopton, 
who  at  last  was  wearied  of  their  pohtical  buffooneries — 
was  committed  to  the  Tower  for  having  said,  when  they 
solemnly  adduced  evidence  from  Rome,  Venice,  Paris,  and 
other  places  as  to  the  King's  designs  against  Parhament  and 
for  a  change  of  religion,  that  they  "  grounded  an  opinion  of 
the  King's  apostasy  upon  evidence  which  would  not  hang  a 
man  for  stealing  a  horse."  ^  A  tradesman  named  Sandeford, 
who  had  "  cursed  the  Parliament,  called  Warwick  and  Essex 
traitors,  and  declared  that  Pym  and  Hotham  should  be 
hanged,"  was  sentenced  to  a  fine,  to  stand  in  the  pillory,  to 
be  whipped  from  Cheapside  to  Westminster,  and  to  be  kept 
to  hard  labour  for  his  life.  These  are  only  a  few  instances  of 
the  even-handed  justice,  the  calm  moderation  and  the  mild 
toleration,  of  these  defenders  of  liberty  who  had  been  shocked 
because  Strafford  was  stern  to  a  selfish  and  corrupt  office- 
seeker  hke  Mountnorris,  or  because  the  Star-chamber  occa- 
sionally condemned  a  persistent  libeller  to  the  chpping  of 
his  ears. 

While  they  were  thus  trampling  on  the  laws  of  which 
they  claimed  to  be  the  sole  defenders,  they  did  not  cease  to 
make  new  applications  to  the  King,  grounded  on  their  fears 
and  jealousies.  On  March  9th,  they  sent  a  message  to  meet 
him  at  Newmarket,  which  he  had  reached  on  his  way  to 
York.  They  had  estabhshed  a  reign  of  terror  at  Westminster, 
and  had  already  assumed  to  themselves  military  command, 
yet  they  still  besought  him  to  return  and  to  accept  the 
Militia  Ordinance.     Pembroke,  who  was  one  of  the  mission, 

'  Hyde  prints  two  of  these  petitions  {Rebellion,  iv.  262),  one  from  the 
Porters,  and  another  from  "  the  Poor  about  London."  The  Porters  urge 
that  their  condition  can  be  improved  only  if  the  Cinque  Ports  are  fortified 
against  the  Papists.  This  is  the  petition  which  that  portentously  solemn 
Whig,  Mr.  George  Brodie,  "  does  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  a  forgery  by 
Clarendon " — the  fact  being  that  Brodie,  historical  purist  as  he  was, 
had  failed  to  examine  the  Commons  Journals  with  that  care  he  professed. 
See  Lister's  Ldfe  of  Clarendon,  vol.  i.  p.  123. 

-  Rebellion,  iv.  338. 


148  INCKEASING   EXASPERATION       [chap,  vi 

and  who,  perhaps,  still  indulged  in  hopes  of  a  compromise, 
pressed  for  the  King's  return,  and  suggested  that  the  Militia 
Ordinance  might  be  accepted  "  for  a  time."  Charles 
answered  fiercely,  "  By  God— not  for  an  hour.  You  have 
asked  that  of  me  was  never  asked  of  a  King,  and  with  which 
I  will  not  trust  my  wife  and  children."  ^ 

The  hollow  pretence  that  a  Government  existed  in  which 
any  other  voice  could  prevail  than  that  of  the  majority  in 
Parhament  was  already  exploded.  The  ministers  of  the 
King  no  longer  held  administrative  power.  Step  by  step 
the  nation  was  moving  to  the  inevitable  crisis  of  civil  war. 

Hyde  soon  found  that  his  position  as  regards  the  King 
on  one  side,  and  Parhament  on  the  other,  involved  him  in 
suspicion,  and  that  his  liberty  and  even  his  lifewere  threatened. 
The  authorship  of  those  disastrously  weighty  replies  to  the 
fulminations  of  the  Parliament  was  soon  detected.  Essex 
and  HoUand  had  chanced,  by  thek  possession  of  keys  as 
Chamberlain  and  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber,  to  detect  Hyde 
closeted  with  the  King  at  Greenwich,  and  it  was  vain  to 
suppose  that  his  close  relations  with  the  Court  could  longer 
be  concealed.  It  soon  appeared,  however,  that  the  dominant 
party  were  prepared  to  follow  up  their  suspicions  by  acts, 
and  no  trust  could  be  placed  in  any  scruple  as  to  defect  of 
legality  which  they  might  feel.  Keen  as  were  their  spies, 
Colepepper  managed  to  have  spies  as  keen  to  ferret  out  their 
designs,  and  he  soon  informed  Hyde  of  their  intention  to 
commit  him  to  the  Tower.  Falkland  and  Colepepper 
himself  would  doubtless  have  followed  him  there  before 
long. 

For  a  time  the  three  friends  stood  their  ground  in  Parlia- 
ment and  defied  their  enemies.  To  make  their  committal 
effective,  it  was  necessary  that  the  blow  should  fall  on  all 
three   at   once.     Could   they   all   be   found   in   Parliament 

'  Rushworth,  iv.  532  ;   Eehdlion,  iv.  344. 


1642]  HYDE   THEEATENED  149 

together,  it  was  only  a  case  of  passing  a  resolution — the 
mildest  criticism  of  which  would  doubtless  have  involved 
some  new  waverer  in  pains  and  penalties — and  the  three 
obnoxious  advisers  of  the  Crown  would  have  been  immured 
in  the  Tower.  But  to  desert  their  posts  suddenly  would  have 
been  disastrous,  and  would  have  brought  the  final  breach 
appreciably  nearer.  They  arranged  that  the  three  should 
never  all  be  absent  from  the  House  and  should  never  all 
be  present.  One  or  two  at  the  most  attended  to  watch  the 
proceedings,  while  maintaining  a  most  careful  reserve. 
The  others  kept  on  the  alert  for  any  contingency  that 
might  necessitate  flight. 

Towards  the  close  of  April  the  King  commanded  Hyde's 
attendance  at  York.  But  there  was  still  business  to  be  done 
at  Westminster.  The  Lord  Keeper  Littleton  was  there,  and 
some  doubt  prevailed  as  to  the  cordiahty  of  his  loyalty  to 
the  King's  cause,  and  as  to  his  willingness  to  take  the  Great 
Seal  to  the  King  at  York.  Even  in  such  an  upturning  of  all 
precedents  as  had  already  befallen,  forms  did  not  count  for 
nothing,  and  it  was  of  vital  importance  that  the  custody  of 
the  Great  Seal  should  be  with  the  King.  Littleton  had  to 
be  advised  with,  to  be  reconciled,  and  to  be  assisted  to  escape.^ 

^  Littleton  was  not  one  of  the  least  interesting  figures  in  an  age  rich  in 
the  brilliant  qualities  of  those  who  played  the  leading  parts  on  the  political 
stage.  Like  so  many  of  the  lawyers  of  that  day,  he  was  no  mere  product 
of  a  legal  training.  Of  good  birth  and  fair  fortune,  with  gifts  of  person  and 
of  mind,  he  had  learned  how  to  bear  himself  so  as  to  wear  the  reputation 
of  a  man  of  courage,  which  he  had  earned  by  the  sword.  After  the  adven- 
tures of  his  early  youth  he  had  employed  himseK  in  the  law,  and,  besides 
acquiring  much  skill  in  the  more  recondite  parts  of  the  law,  he  had  obtained 
a  lucrative  practice.  Drawn  into  the  service  of  the  Crown,  he  had  become 
Solicitor-General,  and,  favoured  both  by  Strafford  and  Laud,  had  been 
appointed  Lord  Chief  Justice.  For  that  post  he  was  eminently  fitted  ;  but, 
in  his  further  steps,  he  scarcely  realized  the  promise  of  his  earlier  days. 
After  the  flight  of  Finch,  he  had  become  Lord  Keeper  ;  but  his  performance 
there  had  disappointed  the  hopes  of  the  King.  He  had  failed  to  show  any 
courage  in  Strafford's  defence ;  became  suspected  of  disloyalty,  and  this 
suspicion  inclined  the  King  to  deprive  him  of  the  seals.  It  was  only  on 
Hyde's  urgency  that  he  retained  Littleton  in  office  but  without  confidence ; 
and  now,  in  the  crisis  of  his  fortunes,  he  feared  that  Littleton  might  desert 


150  INCEEASING  EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

All  this  was  done  by  the  deft  management  of  Hyde,  and  on 
June  3rd,  the  King  had  his  Lord  Keeper,  with  his  Great  Seal, 
at  his  side  in  York. 

Hyde  saw  soon  that  his  own  work  in  London  was  over. 
He  was  required  in  York  to  assist  in  drafting  a  reply  to  the 
nineteen  propositions  embodied  in  the  declaration  of  June  2nd. 
But  it  was  necessary  to  use  all  caution  in  making  his  escape, 
as  every  movement  of  his  was  watched.  On  pretext  of 
illness  that  required  a  change  of  air — duly  certified  by  his 
physician — he  removed  himself  from  London,  and  stayed  at 
Lady  Lee's  house  at  Ditchley,  near  Oxford.  The  flight  of 
the  Lord  Keeper  roused  new  suspicions  against  Hyde, 
which  presently  took  active  shape.  But  designs  that  were 
the  talk  of  a  parliamentary  crowd  were  soon  divulged.  His 
old  friend  Dr.  Morley  heard  of  the  mischief  brewing,  and  that, 
on  the  next  day,  Hyde  was  to  be  impeached  of  high  treason. 
No  time  was  to  be  lost.  Falkland  was  informed,  and  a 
message  sent  to  Hyde  at  Ditchley.  Even  then  it  was  no  easy 
matter  for  one  so  ignorant  of  the  northern  roads  to  reach 
York  without  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  emissaries  of 
Parliament.  At  this  juncture,  Hyde  found  an  old  friend 
who  could  help  him.  Chillingworth,  one  of  that  happy 
circle  that  used  to  gather  under  Falkland's  roof  at  Tew, 
offered  to  be  his  guide  to  York,  and  by  devious  ways,  through 
Coventry  and  Lutterworth,  and  so  through  Derbyshire,  they 
passed  to  Nostall,  within  twenty  miles  of  York,  where  Hyde 
awaited  a  further  summons  from  the  King.  It  was  not  long 
in  reaching  him.  An  answer  to  the  Parliament's  declaration 
was  urgently  called  for,  "  that  the  poison  thereof  might  not 


his  cause.  Littleton  was  depressed  by  this  want  of  confidence,  which  he 
quickly  perceived,  and  it  was  only  by  Hyde's  contrivance  that  the  friction 
was  got  rid  of,  and  that  the  Lord  Keeper  was  induced  to  take  the  bold  step 
of  passing  over  to  the  King  at  York,  and  defying  the  vengeance  of  the 
Parliament.  But  the  essential  point  was  gained — that  the  Great  Seal  was 
in  the  King's  custody. 


1642]  HYDE   AT   YOEK  151 

work  too  long  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  "  and  no  hand 
could  draw  it  with  the  eloquence  or  skill  of  Hyde. 

The  Parhament  soon  took  notice  of  his  absence.  The 
Speaker  explained  it  on  the  ground  of  his  being  troubled 
with  the  stone,  and  produced  the  physician's  certificate.  But 
the  position  was  quickly  guessed.  "  He  was  troubled," 
said  one  orator,  "  with  no  stone  but  the  stone  in  his  heart." 
But  however  they  might  rage,  the  bird  was  flown,  and  they 
presently  heard  of  him  as  one  of  the  company  that  had 
gathered  round  the  King  at  York. 

Events  had  been  moving  forward  rapidly  there.  Each 
side  was  now  marshalling  its  forces,  and  there  were  few  who 
could  doubt  that  the  dispute  must  soon  be  referred  to  the 
arbitrament  of  war.  The  King's  refusal  to  assent  to  the 
Militia  Ordinance  had  been  answered  by  the  Parliament  by 
the  open  assertion  of  their  military  authority.  Eight  thou- 
sand of  the  London  Trained  Bands  were  reviewed  before  the 
Houses  in  Finsbury  Fields,  and  notices  had  been  issued  to 
those  whom  they  had  named  as  Lord  Lieutenants  to  make 
levies  elsewhere.  The  King  proclaimed  the  treason  involved 
in  these  orders,  and  on  his  own  side  summoned  those  who 
adhered  to  the  constitution  to  lend  him  their  aid.  The 
attention  of  both  sides  had  been  particularly  turned  upon 
Hull,  where  the  King  had  gathered  an  abundant  store  of 
ammunition  and  artillery,  and  which  was  strongly  fortified. 
Its  position  and  its  easy  access  to  the  Continent  rendered  it 
doubly  important  when  the  Queen  was  busily  employed  in 
gathering  arms  and  munitions  of  war  in  Holland,  and  was 
raising  money  by  the  sale  of  her  jewels.  The  Earl  of  Warwick, 
as  their  Lord  Admiral,  was  ordered  by  the  Parliament  to 
remove  the  stores  to  London,  and  Sir  .John  Hotham,  whose 
appointment  as  Governor  we  have  already  noted,  was  bidden 
to  hold  the  place  against  the  King.  On  April  23rd,  the  King 
appeared  at  the  gates  with  a  following  of  three  hundred  men, 


152  INCREASING   EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

and  summoned  Hotham  to  admit  him.  Hotham  pleaded  the 
orders  of  his  masters,  the  Houses  of  Parhament,  and  closed 
the  gates  in  the  face  of  his  sovereign.  The  town  was  in 
favour  of  the  King,  but  was  overawed  by  the  presence  of 
Hotham's  garrison.  It  would  scarcely  be  wrong  to  say  that 
the  Civil  War  dated  from  that  day. 

The  dramatic  character  of  that  incident ;  the  personal 
insult  to  the  King ;  the  sight  of  his  own  citadel's  gates  closed 
against  the  sovereign — these  have  all  given  to  the  scene  at 
Hull  a  prominence  that  is  perhaps  a  little  exaggerated. 
Hotham's  bluff  refusal,  his  perplexed  career,  with  its  strange 
story  of  a  deadly  feud  between  father  and  son,  and  its  tragic 
end,  have  thrown  a  lurid  colour  on  his  figure,  which  seems 
to  be  intensified  by  the  fact  that  he  was  the  first  who  actually 
stood  in  arms  against  his  sovereign,  and  face  to  face  defied 
his  orders.  But  it  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  pronounce  a  verdict 
as  to  his  action.  A  mihtary  commander  has  no  alternative 
but  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  written  orders  that  have 
placed  him  in  his  command.  No  political  superior,  not  the 
King  himself,  can  by  his  personal  presence  override  these 
orders,  even  if  they  were  issued  in  his  name.  If,  in  our  own 
day,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  War  were  to  appear  in  an 
armed  garrison  and  personally  to  interfere  with  the  general's 
authority,  it  would,  we  apprehend,  be  the  duty  of  that 
general  to  place  him  under  arrest  until  he  received  written 
and  duly  attested  orders  from  head-quarters.  The  King's 
personal  intervention  was,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  unwise.  He 
could  have  issued  an  order,  duly  certified  by  a  minister,  and 
despatched  a  representative  to  carry  it  out ;  and  had  the 
order  been  correct  in  law,  Hotham  would  have  been  guilty 
of  treason  for  his  disobedience  to  it.  But  his  personal 
presence  only  complicated  the  matter.  Hotham  was  there 
under  the  written  commission  of  the  Parliament ;  he  might 
justly  plead  that,  as  a  mihtary  commander,  he  had  nothing 


1642]      HYDE'S  ANSWEK  FOE  THE   KING  153 

to  do  with  political  disputes,  and  that  it  was  none  of  his 
business  to  analyse  the  authority  of  his  commission.  It  is 
not  impossible  that  greater  dexterity  in  the  preliminary 
measures  might  have  led  to  a  different  result.^  It  would,  at 
all  events,  have  spared  the  King  a  damaging  personal 
rebuff. 

During  these  last  weeks  a  shower  of  declarations  and 
counter  declarations  passed  between  the  Parliament  and  the 
King,  the  arguments  for  the  King  being  in  each  case  drafted 
by  Hyde.  To  give  these  in  detail  would  be  more  in  place  in 
a  history  of  the  Civil  War,  than  in  the  biography  of  Hyde. 
They  were  studiously  moderate  in  tone,  and  avoided  any 
exaggerated  claim  for  the  prerogative.  Hyde's  ideal,  as  we 
must  often  insist,  was  a  constitutional  monarchy,  and  not  an 
absolutism  framed  on  foreign  models.  He  knew  also  that 
the  appeal  was  made,  not  to  Parliament,  nor  to  any  high 
court  of  appeal,  which  might  decide  the  questions  in  dispute 
according  to  some  legal  maxim,  but  to  the  moderate  majority 
of  the  nation,  whose  human  sympathies  were  to  be  enlisted 
on  behalf  of  the  Crown.  Hyde's  moderation  found  critics 
amongst  the  supporters  of  the  King,  who  thought  his 
arguments  unduly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  accommo- 
dation, and  Hobbes,  in  the  Behemoth,  is  sarcastic  about 
those  "  either  lawyers  by  profession,  or  such  gentlemen  as 
had  the  ambition  to  be  thought  so,"  who  drafted  these 
declarations — 


'  This  seems  to  be  Hyde's  opinion.  "  Many  were  of  opinion  that  if  he 
had  been  prepared  dexterously  beforehand,  and  in  confidence,  he  (Hotham) 
would  have  conformed  to  the  King's  pleasure  ;  for  he  was  master  of  a  noble 
fortune  in  land,  and  rich  in  money,  of  an  ancient  family  and  well  allied, 
his  affections  to  the  Government  very  good,  and  no  man  less  desired  to  see 
the  nation  involved  in  a  civil  war  than  he  "  {Rebellion,  v.  91).  It  must  be 
remembered  that  Hotham's  sympathies,  as  was  on  more  than  one  occasion 
subsequently  proved,  were  not  entirely  against  the  King.  In  the  June 
following,  he  refused  to  betray  Digby,  who  had  landed  in  disguise  and  placed 
himself  in  Hotham's  mercy.  At  that  time  Hotham  was  almost  persuaded 
to  surrender  Hull  to  the  King. 


154  INCREASING  EXASPERATION       [chap,  vi 

"  Averse  to  absolute  monarchy,  as  also  to  absolute 
democracy  or  aristocracy,  all  which  governments  they  es- 
teemed tyranny,  and  were  in  love  with  a  sort  of  monarchy 
which  they  used  to  praise  by  the  name  of  mixed  monarchy. 
They  were  such  as  having  been  members  of  this  Parliament, 
had  declared  against  ship-money  and  other  extra  Parlia- 
mentary taxes  as  much  as  any,  but  when  they  saw  the  Parlia- 
ment grow  higher  in  their  demands  than  they  thought  they 
would  have  done,  went  on  to  the  King's  party." 

We  may  admit  that  these  declarations  had  none  of  the 
spirit  of  Hobbes'  rigid  logic.  But  Hyde  did  not  show  any 
ignorance  of  the  nation's  instincts  when  he  felt  that  logic 
would  not  guide  their  ultimate  settlement  of  the  dispute. 
Long  before  he  entered  the  lists  of  written  controversy  with 
Hobbes,  Hyde  was,  in  fact,  combating  his  doctrines  of 
polity. 

Perhaps  the  most  important,  and  also  the  most  lengthy, 
of  these  declarations  by  Parliament,  were  those  of  May  19th 
and  May  26th,  to  each  of  which  Hyde,  in  the  name  of  the  King, 
made  an  elaborate  reply.  It  was  an  age  when  lengthy 
sermons,  elaborate  disquisitions,  and  cumbrous  arguments 
were  acceptable  to  the  taste  of  the  day  ;  and  these  declara- 
tions and  counter  declarations  were  studied  by  the  people 
with  a  diligence,  and  produced  an  effect,  which  may  seem 
astonishing  to  our  own  day,  when  the  limits  of  popular 
patience  would  probably  not  extend  beyond  a  few  cursory 
paragraphs,  if  indeed  it  were  not  content  to  judge  grave 
constitutional  questions  upon  the  basis  of  a  few  phrases 
culled  from  platform  speeches.  Our  grandfathers  took  their 
politics  more  seriously,  and  the  provender  supplied  to  them 
was  perhaps  not  inferior  to  the  facile  aids  of  journalistic 
comment  in  our  own  day.  Serious  argument  is  now  em- 
bodied in  Blue  Books  ;  but  the  State  papers  on  each  side  in 
the  days  preceding  the  Civil  War  were  read  by  the  people 


1642]         DECLARATIONS   BY   PARLIAMENT  155 

whom  they  concerned.     The  same  could  scarcely  be  said  of 
the  modern  Blue  Book. 

The  new  declarations  of  Parliament  certainly  do  not 
sink  to  the  level  of  the  Remonstrance,  either  in  substance 
or  in  form.  But  they  reiterate,  with  a  perseverance  that 
becomes  tiresome,  the  hypocritical  distinction  between  the 
King  and  his  "  evil  counsellors  ;  "  they  pretend  to  find  the 
agency  of  these  counsellors  even  in  the  most  personal  acts 
of  the  King,  and  they  draw  the  usual  subtle  distinction 
between  his  personal  position  and  his  titular  authority. 
Their  arguments  in  effect  assume  that  the  only  authority  to 
be  recognized  in  the  Crown  is  that  which  is  carried  on  with 
the  assent,  and,  if  need  be,  under  the  sole  management  of 
the  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  even  if  the  King 
personally  has  no  part  in  it.  They  renew  once  more  their 
protestation  of  respect  for  his  person  and  his  place  in  the 
realm  ;  but  that  respect  is  made  not  only  to  be  compatible 
with  resistance  to  his  will,  but  to  be  a  compelling  force 
in  requiring  them  to  resist  that  will.  Those  who,  at  his 
summons,  assist  him  with  their  counsel,  or  are  ready  to 
aid  him  with  their  arms,  are  said  to  be  traitors  to  his 
cause,  and  to  be  levying  war  against  his  person,  because 
that  cause  and  that  person  can  be  conceived  only  as 
embodied  in  Parliament  and  expressed  by  its  decrees. 

All  this  had  not  a  little  affinity  with  the  religious  doctrines 
which  were  prevalent,  and  with  the  wiredrawn  arguments 
by  which  they  constantly  found  those  doctrines  upheld  in 
nonconformist  pulpits.  But  there  is,  fortunately,  in  human 
nature  a  rooted  prejudice  against  arguments  based  on  an 
abstract  theory  which  has  no  relation  to  facts.  That 
prejudice  is  apt  to  find  in  such  arguments  something  akin 
to  insincerity  and  affectation.  Their  fears  of  an  overstrained 
prerogative  might  be  fully  justified.  Their  desire  for  new 
guarantees  for  Parliamentary  liberty  might  be  reasonable. 


156  INCREASING   EXASPERATION      [cHAr.  vi 

They  might  have  sound  reasons  for  distrusting  some  of  those 
who  were  in  the  confidence  of  the  King.  Looking  at  the 
dispute  in  the  hght  of  subsequent  developments,  we  can 
discern  clearly  that  a  new  theory  of  the  Constitution  was 
emerging,  towards  which  the  action  of  the  Parliament  was 
making  definite  progress,  for  good  or  ill.  But  somehow 
human  nature  has  a  distaste  for  arguments  that  are  purely 
artificial,  that  attempt  to  present  revolution  under  the  false 
guise  of  a  strict  adherence  to  precedent,  or  that  dress-up 
resistance  in  a  fanciful  guise  of  profound  loyalty.  We  prefer 
revolution  that  recognizes  and  announces  itself  for  what  it 
is  ;  and  we  grow  weary  of  being  told  that  we  must  discern 
in  the  attitude  of  the  dominant  majority  some  underlying 
principle  quite  different  from  what  its  words  express.  We 
would  be  more  content  to  read  a  direct  attack  upon  the 
King,  and  a  more  plain,  because  a  more  sincere,  identification 
of  him  with  those  actions  for  which  he  was  in  fact  responsible, 
and  for  which  those  who  assailed  them  did,  in  their  hearts, 
recognize  his  responsibility. 

It  was  this  inherent  inconsistency  between  the  reality 
and  the  pretence,  which  gave  Hyde  an  effective  opportunity 
of  reply.  He  did  not  attempt  to  defend  an  unlimited 
prerogative,  which  he  had  himself  resisted,  and  to  which 
he  was  sincerely  opposed.  He  found  the  Parhament 
guilty  of  precisely  those  errors  which,  in  his  opinion,  had 
endangered  the  Constitution  in  the  days  of  Strafford.  In 
their  present  action  he  found  a  proof  of — 

"  The  method  of  God's  justice  .  .  .  that  the  same 
principles  and  the  same  application  of  those  principles, 
should  be  used  to  the  wresting  all  sovereign  power  from  the 
Crown,  which  the  Crown  had  a  little  before  made  use  of  for 
the  extending  its  authority  and  power  beyond  its  bounds  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  just  rights  of  the  subject.  A  supposed 
necessity  was  then  thought  ground  enough  to  create  a  power, 


1642]  HYDE'S   DEXTEROUS   MODERATION     157 

and  a  bare  averment  of  that  necessity  to  beget  a  practice,  to 
impose  what  tax  they  thought  convenient  upon  the  subject, 
by  writs  of  ship-money  never  before  known  ;  and  a  supposed 
necessity  now,  and  a  bare  averment  of  that  necessity,  is  as 
confidently,  and  more  fatally,  concluded  a  good  ground  to 
exclude  the  Crown  from  the  use  of  any  power  by  an  ordinance 
never  before  heard  of."  ^ 

Hyde's  aim  was  a  Constitutional  monarchy ;  but  it  was 
a  Constitutional  monarchy  to  be  shaped  upon  strictly  con- 
servative lines. 

In  their  claims  for  the  Crown,  therefore,  Hyde's  declara- 
tions were  moderate  enough  to  incur  the  criticisms  to  which 
we  have  already  referred.  But  that  moderation  was  not 
without  its  weight  and  its  advantage.  It  secured  for  the 
Royalist  cause  a  favourable  hearing.  It  dispelled  from  men's 
minds  those  fears  of  monarchical  tyranny  which  the  Parlia- 
mentary majority  had  sedulously  cultivated.  As  a  fact,  it 
did  secure  for  the  King  a  body  of  support  entirely  unexpected 
by  his  opponents,  and  extremely  disconcerting  to  their 
aims. 

And  it  does  not  follow  that  because  Hyde's  scheme  for 
a  settlement  was  moderate,  his  statement  was  tame,  or  his 
appeal  to  passion  ineffectual.  On  the  contrary,  he  enlists 
on  his  side  every  device  of  rhetoric  to  make  the  Parliamentary 
position  odious,  and  to  make  its  glaring  inconsistencies 
apparent.  Ridicule,  sarcasm,  invective,  apt  illustration — ^all 
are  marshalled  against  them.  A  parallel  for  them  is  found 
in  the  Thirty  Tyrants  of  Athens.  The  insincerity  of  their 
pretence  of  loyalty  is  exposed.  The  subterfuge  which  cloaks 
the  evident  responsibility  of  the  King  under  attacks  upon 
his  "  evil  counsellors  "  is  unmasked.  The  ignorance  which 
mistranslates  the  Latin  words  of  the  Coronation  oath  is 
satirized    at    the    same   time    that    the    absurdity  of   that 

'  Eebellion,  v.  15i. 


158  INCEEASING   EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

interpretation  is  made  evident/  The  unbridled  language  used 
by  individual  members  in  Parliament  is  dragged  into  the 
light,  and  contrasted  with  the  empty  phrases  of  apparent 
loyalty  in  their  conjoint  addresses.  His  majesty  "  doubts 
not  all  his  good  subjects  did  now  plainly  discern,  through  the 
mask  and  vizard  of  their  hypocrisy,  what  their  design  was." 
Those  references  to  the  black  satin  suit  and  white  boots  in 
which  Mr.  Jermyn  had  escaped,  which  Parhament  had  not 
felt  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  adduce  as  grounds  for  their 
alarm  of  plots,  as  proving  the  haste  and  secrecy  of  his  flight, 
are  not  spared  a  contemptuous  and  sarcastic  notice.  Their 
concern  for  the  King's  safety,  their  assumed  fear  that  he 
was  coerced  by  the  little  band  of  his  own  guard,  are  con- 
trasted with  their  connivance  with  those  disorderly  crowds 
that  attacked  Whitehall,  insulted  his  adherents  in  the  streets, 
and  threatened  to  pull  down  the  Abbey. 

If  Hyde  was  moderate  in  his  constitutional  aims,  and 
studiously  left  room  for  compromise  between  the  rights  of 
the  King  and  of  his  subjects,  he  was  by  no  means  timid  in 
the  language  with  which  he  ridiculed  the  assumptions,  and 
laid  bare  the  insincerity  of  the  Parliamentary  disputants. 
Not  unnaturally  they  felt  that  this  war  of  words  did  not 
redound  to  their  credit.  Finally,  on  June  2nd,  they  despatched 
to  the  King  the  nineteen  propositions,  which  embodied  their 
demands.  Even  before  the  reply  was  sent  to  their  declaration 
of  May  26th,  the  tenor  of  these  propositions  was  known,  and 
a  reference  is  therein  made  to  them.     In  connection  with  the 


1  The  Parliament  chose  to  translate  the  word  "  elegerit,"  in  the 
Coronation  oath  prescribed  by  an  Act  of  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  "  shall 
chose,"  instead  of  "  hath  chosen."  Their  ignorance  of  the  use  of  the 
subjunctive  mood  was  like  to  have  more  serious  consequences  than  usually 
attend  grammatical  errors.  It  involved  the  strange  proposition  that  the 
King  was  not  only  bound  to  maintain  the  existing  laws,  but  was  unable  to 
refuse  assent  to  any  law  which  the  Commons  might  pass  hereafter.  However 
much  usage  may  have  altered,  the  lapse  of  nearly  three  centuries  has  not 
made  the  serious  breach  in  the  Constitution  which  that  would  have  entailed. 


1642]    HYDE  AND  FALKLAND'S  DIFFERENCES     159 

reply  to  the  nineteen  propositions  there  arose  one  of  those  rare 
differences  of  opinion  that  occurred  in  the  warm  friendship 
of  Hyde  and  Falkland.  Hyde  had  his  hands  full  of  other 
work  when  the  propositions  were  received,  and  he  perhaps 
felt  that  for  the  moment  he  had  exhausted  the  fountain 
of  his  argumentative  invective.  Colepepper  and  Falkland 
undertook  the  drafting  of  a  reply,  and  they  were  not  likely 
to  pay  special  attention  to  ecclesiastical  rights  and  privileges. 
In  that  part  of  the  paper  which  Colepepper  drew  up,  he 
spoke  of  the  King,  the  Lords,  and  the  Commons  as  the  three 
estates  of  Parhament.  To  this  Hyde  objected  as  admitting 
a  dangerous  and  unconstitutional  principle.  The  three 
estates  were  properly  the  Lords  Temporal,  the  Lords  Spiritual, 
and  the  Commons,  the  King  being  the  head  and  sovereign  of 
the  whole.  Falkland  had  overlooked  the  error,  and  handed 
the  paper  to  Hyde  to  be  printed  without  change.  Unwilling 
to  alter  the  work  of  his  friends,  Hyde  advised  the  King  that 
no  further  reply  was  necessary,  and  suppressed  the  paper. 
Falkland,  when  he  learned  the  fact,  resented  it  with  some 
warmth,  and  accused  Hyde  of  having  "  disliked  it  because  he 
had  not  writ  it  himself."  Hyde's  only  reply  was  "  that  he 
had  never  expected  so  unkind  a  reproach  from  him,"  and 
immediately  sent  the  paper  to  the  printer.  The  slight  jar 
was  soon  smoothed  over  and  produced  no  change  in  their 
friendship.  Falkland,  although  not  so  keen  a  supporter  of 
ecclesiastical  privileges  as  Hyde,  yet  admitted  the  mistake 
into  which  he  had  been  led  by  Colepepper.  The  paper  was 
printed  as  it  stood. 

Some  of  the  demands,  the  King  admitted,  "  were  to  be 
approved  by  every  honest  man ;  others  were  specious  and 
popular  ;  some  had  been  already  granted."  But  they  were 
"  cunningly  mixed  and  twisted  with  other  things  of  their 
main  design."  He  could  not  accept  them  without  infringe- 
ment of  the  law,  and  without  stripping  himself  of  "  those 


160  INCREASING  EXASPERATION      [chap,  vi 

flowers  of  his  crown  "  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 
ancestors,  and  which  were  necessary  for  the  welfare  and 
security  of  his  subjects.  The  suggestion  that  he  should 
bargain  these  away  for  a  safe,  and  even  increased  revenue, 
he  rejects  with  contemptuous  disdain. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    FIEST    CAMPAIGN    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

But  a  short  space  was  now  left  for  either  side  to  make 
preparations  for  that  war  which  by  this  time  all  recognized 
as  inevitable.  In  London  the  Parliament  was  raising 
money,  was  issuing  orders  for  the  levying  of  troops,  was 
reviewing  the  trained  bands,  and  had  already  designated 
Essex  as  leader  of  the  army.  The  adherents  of  the  King 
were  resorting  in  large  numbers  to  York,  and  there  Hyde 
was  soon  joined  by  his  fellow-counsellors,  Falkland  and 
Colepepper. 

He  gives  us  some  glimpses  of  his  life  at  this  time,  which 
help  us  to  reahze  its  difficulties  and  its  shifts.  We  have 
seen  the  stratagem  he  employed  to  get  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  Parhamentary  leaders,  and  the  devious  roads  by  which, 
under  the  guidance  of  Chilhngworth,  he  had  reached  the 
neighbourhood  of  York.  When  the  King  summoned  him 
to  his  presence,  a  house  was  prepared  for  his  use.  Hyde 
found  it  convenient  enough ;  but  when  he  was  retiring  to 
rest,  his  servant  came  to  tell  him  that  he  wished  he  would 
lodge  elsewhere ;  the  house  was  good  enough,  but  the  people 
of  the  house  were  the  worst  he  had  ever  seen,  and  he  was 
confident,  would  do  his  master  some  mischief.  It  appeared 
that  when  his  household  first  arrived  they  were  received  with 
all  attention  by  the  master  and  mistress  of  the  house,  and 
desired  to  call  for  all  they  wanted.  It  was  only  when  Hyde's 
name  became  known  that  the  aspect  of  matters  changed. 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR   [chap,  vii 

"  What,  Hyde  of  the  House  of  Commons  ?  "  exclaimed  the 
good  lady,  with  a  shriek  ;    "he  should  not  lodge  in  her 
house."     Her  husband,  when  he  learned   the  hated  name, 
was  equally  open-mouthed  in  his  denunciations,  and  swore 
that  he  would  sooner  set  his  house  on  fire  than  entertain 
such  a  guest  within  its  walls.     It  was  in  vain  to  urge  that 
Hyde  had  never  been  in  York  till  that  day,  that  he  could  not 
possibly  have  done  harm  to  a  man  whom  he  had  never  seen. 
The  anger  and  the  imprecations  were  as  stormy  as  ever,  and 
when  Hyde  himself,  upon  learning  what  had  happened,  asked 
to  see  his  hosts,  the  only  answer  returned  was  that  they  were 
gone  to  bed.       There  was  nothing  for  it  but  that  Hyde 
should  go  to  bed  himself,  hoping  that  in  the  morning,  when 
they  were  in  their  sober  senses,  he  would  be  able  to  appease 
their  unreasonable  fury.     Things  were  no  calmer  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  it  presently  appeared  that  the  man  had  real  grounds 
for  his  dislike.     He   had   been   an   attorney  in  the  Court 
of  the  North,  and  Hyde  was  chief  of  the  pestilent  reformers 
who  had  assailed  that  Court  and  destroyed  his  means  of 
livelihood ;  it  was  he  who  had  been  Chairman  of  the  Committee, 
and  who  had  carried  to  the  Peers  the  resolutions  upon  which 
the  Court  had  been  dissolved.     Hyde  had  philosophy  enough 
to  confess  that  his  unwilling  host  had  better  reason  to  be 
angry  with  him  than  others  had,  who  were  as  angry  and 
persecuted  him  more.     It  was  just  as  well  that  he  should 
be  reminded,  in  entering  on  his  new  duties,  that  there  were 
penalties  to  be  paid  for  reforming  zeal,  even  when  its  ardour 
was    abated.     He    felt    bound    to    spare    the    dispossessed 
attorney   the  irksomeness   of  his  presence,    and  presently 
found  lodgings  with  a  prebendary  of  the  Minster. 

It  was  for  other  delinquencies  than  that  alleged  against 
him  by  his  outraged  host  that  Hyde's  more  formidable 
enemies  sought  revenge.  The  Parliamentary  leaders  desired 
his  presence  in  Parliament  because  they  knew  methods  of 


1642]  HYDE   AT   YORK  163 

dealing  drastically  with  those  in  their  midst  who  showed 
themselves  refractory.  The  summons  to  him  to  return  to  his 
place  in  the  House  was  at  first  couched  in  civil  terms  enough. 
Commissioners  were  still  passing  between  Westminster  and 
the  Court.  A  group  of  these  Commissioners,  now  in  York, 
learned  that  Hyde  "  was  walking  in  the  garden  wdth  the 
King."  They  presently  sought  him  there,  and  with  all  show 
of  courtesy,  let  him  see  their  instructions  from  the  House, 
which  told  them  to  command  the  immediate  attendance  of 
any  member  whom  they  might  find  at  York  ;  and  "  so  they 
desired  he  would  excuse  them  for  doing  their  duty."  Hyde's 
reply  to  a  message  in  which  the  threat  was  only  thinly  hidden 
by  the  veil  of  pohteness,  was  probably  just  what  they 
expected.  "  He  had  come  in  obedience  to  his  Majesty's 
commands,  and  knew  not  yet  what  service  he  was  to  do  ; 
when  his  Majesty  gave  him  leave  he  would  return." 

He  had  another  meeting  about  the  same  time  with  one 
whom  he  had  known  long,  and  towards  whom  he  had  no 
cordial  feelings.     The  Earl  of  Holland  ^  had  now  come  as 

'  Henry  Rich  was  the  second  son  of  Lord  Rich  and  Penelope  Deverenx, 
the  daughter  of  the  first  Earl  of  Essex,  and  sister  of  the  favourite  of 
Elizabeth.  Her  marriage  to  Rich  (who  was  subsequently  created  Earl  of 
Warwick,  and  whose  eldest  son  became  Parliamentary  Lord  Admiral)  was 
an  unhappy  one,  and  she  did  not  allow  strict  scruples  as  to  the  marriage 
bond  to  regulate  her  conduct.  After  a  long  intimacy  with  Sir  Philip  Sydney, 
who  addressed  her  as  Stella,  she  became  the  mistress  of  Charles  Blount, 
Earl  of  Devonshire,  and  by  him  (to  whom  she  was  subsequently  married) 
she  had,  besides  other  children,  an  illegitimate  son,  created  Earl  of  Newport, 
and  appointed  Governor  of  the  Tower,  an  office  in  which  the  brutal  levity 
of  his  character  found  congenial  work,  of  which  we  have  a  sample  in  his 
avowed  resolution  to  have  Strafford  murdered  in  the  Tower  if  the  King 
should  exercise  his  prerogative  of  mercy.  The  marriage  of  this  divorced 
mother  of  an  unsavoury  progeny  was  the  religious  ceremony  which  Laud 
was  persuaded  to  perform  in  his  earlier  days,  and  which  was  the  subject  of 
his  life-long  repentance.  The  young  Henry  Rich  ingratiated  himself  with 
James  by  acts  which  won  him  no  honour  amongst  men  of  any  scruple  as 
to  conduct,  and  his  good  looks  and  persistent  insinuation  won  for  him  vast 
grants  and  lucrative  offices,  especially  that  of  Justice  in  Eyre,  when  he 
exercised  his  opportunities  of  extortion  to  the  discredit  of  the  Crown.  He 
was  created  Earl  of  HoUand,  and  by  Royal  favour  obtained  a  wealthy  wife, 
through  whom  he  became  Lord  of  the  Manor  of  Kensington.  He  did  not, 
for  all  his  social  arts,  escape  the  imputation  of  cowardice,  and  his  wavering 


164  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAB   [chap,  vii 

an  emissary  from  the  Parliament  to  propose  terms  to  his 
master.  He,  who  owed  all  the  honour  and  all  the  wealth 
he  now  enjoyed  to  the  King  and  his  father,  had  neglected  the 
attendance  which  was  his  duty  as  Groom  of  the  Stole ; 
and  was  now  in  the  confidence  of  the  enemies  of  the  Court. 
As  Hyde  was  riding  to  Beverley,  he  encountered  him  on 
the  road,  and  those  greetings  prescribed  by  strict  courtesy 
passed  between  them.  Holland  hoped  he  would  be  "  welcome 
to  all  honest  men  at  Court,  because  he  came  to  invite  the 
King  to  return  to  his  Parliament  and  to  abolish  all  jealousies 
between  them."  "  He  would  be  welcome  indeed,"  said 
Hyde,  "  if  he  brought  proper  expedients  to  produce  either 
of  these  ends  ;  but  his  errand  must  be  of  another  composition 
than  the  King  understood  it  to  be."  Their  conversation 
became  heated,  and  Hyde  lost  his  usual  "  guard  upon 
himself."  The  canting  hypocrisy  of  such  a  man  was  httle  to 
his  taste,  and  Hyde  sought  no  further  intercourse  with  him. 
Holland  failed  to  win  him  by  pliant  courtesies  ;  and  his 
threats  were  still  more  ineffectual.  Hyde  was  not  surprised 
to  learn  that,  after  Holland's  return,  a  vote  was  passed 
excluding  Hyde  from  pardon  in  any  accommodation  that 
might  be  made.  The  newly  begotten  intimacy  between 
the  King  and  their  escaped  colleague  became  a  favourite 
theme  with  the  Parliamentary  journalists.  One  day  Hyde 
was  accosted  by  the  King,  amidst  a  crowd  of  courtiers, 
with  the  strange  inquiry,  "  Ned  Hyde,  when  did  you  play 
with  my  band-strings  last  ?  "  Hyde  was  naturally  put  out 
of  countenance  by  the  merriment  that  followed,  until  the 
King  reassured  him.  "  Be  not  troubled  at  it,  for  I  have 
worn  no  band-strings  these  twenty  years."  He  was  then 
shown  the  Parliamentary  "  diurnal,"  in  which  it  was  duly 

allegiance  to  each  party  in  turn,  increased  the  aversion  which  that  imputa- 
tion caused.  Few  men  owed  more  to  the  Royal  favour,  or  repaid  it  worse, 
and  his  reputation  was  only  partially  retrieved  by  his  death  on  the  scaffold, 
in  1G49. 


1642]  DOUBTS   AND   MISGIVINGS  165 

chronicled  that  Ned  Hyde  was  so  familiar  with  the  King 
that  he  used  to  play  with  his  band-strings/ 

Holland  found  little  favour  at  the  Court.  The  natural 
resentment  of  the  King  at  his  gross  ingratitude  was  shown  in 
an  avoidance  of  all  personal  intercourse,  and  in  a  coldness 
of  manner  which  was  visible  to  all.  His  repulse  was  decisive, 
and  he  had  to  carry  back  a  message  in  which  his  elder  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Warwick,  was  denounced  as  a  traitor. 

Already,  hke  the  sparks  preceding  a  great  conflagration, 
skirmishes  had  broken  out  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Men's  passions  were  now  so  roused  as  to  make  them  eager  to 
have  recourse  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  In  spite  of 
all  his  efforts  to  keep  up  a  show  of  courage,  Hyde  found  the 
spirits  of  those  around  him  often  depressed.  He  records  a 
conversation  with  Sir  Edmund  Verney,  the  Knight  Marshal, 
one  of  the  few  whose  unselfish  chivalry  sustained  him  in  the 
midst  of  doubts.  Verney  congratulated  Hyde  upon  his 
vivacity  and  cheerfulness  amidst  the  general  depression. 
Hyde  answered  that  "  he  was  beholden  to  his  constitution, 
which  did  not  inchne  him  to  despair."  But  though  he 
thought  as  ill  of  affairs  as  most  men  did,  he  felt  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  make  a  show  of  courage,  if  only  to  dissipate  the 
dejection  of  others.  Verney's  reply  was  a  sad  one.  He  would 
do  the  best  he  could,  but  he  would  "  act  it  very  scurvily." 
Hyde,  he  said,  had  the  satisfaction  that  his  conscience  told 
him  that  he  was  in  the  right.  For  himself,  Verney  did  not 
like  the  quarrel.  But  "  he  had  eaten  the  King's  bread,  and 
served  him  near  thirty  years,"  and  would  not  desert  him 
now.  His  loyalty  rested  upon  a  foundation  of  gratitude 
rather  than  of  reason.  Within  two  months  Verney  had  lost 
his  life  for  the  King  at  Edgehill.  If  others  had  been  like 
him,  says  Hyde,  that  battle  never  would  have  been  fought. 
The  simpler  guides  of  fidelity  are  not  only  the  easiest  for  a 

*  i/t/e,  i.  157. 


166  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

man  to  obey  ;  perhaps  they  help  the  pubhc  weal  as  much  as 
the  sophistries  of  political  argument. 

Hyde,  during  this  brief  and  ominous  interval,  had  heavy 
work  upon  his  hands.  It  was  he  who  chiefly  arranged  for 
collecting  funds,  and  he  had  already  been  finding  out  from 
the  colleges  at  Oxford  what  offerings  they  could  make  in 
money  or  in  plate  for  the  Royalist  cause.  It  was  no  small 
task,  now  that  the  fabric  of  government  had  collapsed, 
to  keep  up  a  semblance  of  respect  for  constitutional  forms, 
and  to  furnish  what  was  essential  not  only  to  maintain  the 
dignity  associated  with  the  Crown,  but  to  provide  for  the 
equipment  of  a  military  force.^  That  task  fell  upon  him 
even  before  he  formally  assumed  the  office  of  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer. 

Besides  this,  he  had  to  draft  the  endless  replies  and 
declarations  which  were  called  for,  not  only  in  negotiations 
with  Parliament,  but  in  correspondence  with  various  parts 
of  the  country.  Even  in  its  diminished  splendour,  the 
Court  retained,  in  full  measure,  its  complement  of  greedy 
suitors,  and  of  jealous  aspirants  ;  and  all  these  had  to  be  kept 
in  a  fair  measure  of  good  temper.  At  times  Hyde  seems  to 
have  had  his  share  in  work  which  was  scarcely  so  official. 
Papers  were  printed  which  purported  to  report  verbatim 

^  We  are  apt  to  overlook  the  degree  to  \yhich  that  age  was  accustomed  to 
consider  lavish  display  and  very  profuse  expenditure  as  things  inseparable 
from  the  Royal  State.  The  revenue  of  the  nation  was  so  small  in  com- 
parison with  modern  standards,  that  we  not  unnaturally  think  of  the  Royal 
household  as  managed  on  similarly  narrow  lines.  This  was  not  the  case.  If 
we  examine  the  national  accounts,  we  find  that  the  only  item  which  does 
not  fall  notably  below  present-day  standards  is  the  Civil  List ;  and  when 
we  allow  for  the  difference  in  the  value  of  money,  this  points  to  a  large 
expenditure  in  the  maintenance  of  Royalty.  The  Court  was  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  retainers,  each  drawing  on  its  revenue,  and  open  table 
was  kept.  Professor  Gardiner's  summary  of  revenue  for  several  j'ears, 
between  1610  and  1635,  shows  that  of  a  total  varying  from  £442,000 
to  £636,000  (in  round  figures),  considerably  more  than  one-third  went  to 
the  Court.  The  change  from  this  to  something  near  to  destitution  imposed 
a  heavy  burden  on  those  charged  with  management  of  finance.  See 
Gardiner,  x.  222. 


1642]  MOVEMENTS   OF   THE   KING  167 

the  speeches  delivered  in  Parliament.  If  they  were  more 
imaginative  than  true,  this  did  not  render  them  the  less 
useful  in  conveying  a  desired  impression  to  the  public  ;  and 
Hyde  did  not  disdain  to  lend  a  hand  in  concocting  such 
mirrors  of  Parliament.  He  tells  us  how,'  on  one  occasion, 
he  imitated  so  accurately  the  style  of  the  Lords  Pembroke 
and  Brooke,  that  the  first  of  the  two  lords  was  readv 
to  accept  the  speech  as  his  own,  and  the  second  was  indig- 
nant to  find  that  his  fellow-peers  were  ready  to  aver  that 
they  had  heard  him  say  just  what  was  attributed  to  him, 
which  he  as  strongly  disavowed.  Pembroke,  too,  helped 
Falkland  to  win  a  bet  from  the  King,  who  avowed  that  ho 
knew  Hyde's  peculiar  style  so  well,  that  he  could  tell  anything 
that  he  had  written  amongst  a  multitude  of  writings  by 
other  men  ;  and  was  ready  to  lay  an  angel  that  he  could 
not  be  deceived.  Falkhind  some  days  later  brought  him 
the  journal  with  the  Parliamentary  speeches.  The  King  was 
surprised  that  Pembroke  "  could  speak  so  long  together  ;  " 
but  the  words  were  surely  his,  for  no  one  else  could  have 
uttered  them.  Falkland  whispered  that  he  claimed  his 
angel,  and  the  bet  was  promptly  paid.  Hyde  had  written 
the  speech. 

In  order  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  Midlands  and  the  West, 
it  was  decided  that  the  King  should  move  to  Nottingham, 
which  was  appointed  as  a  rendezvous  for  his  adherents. 
Already  there  were  dissensions  on  the  point,  and  it  seemed  to 
some  unwise  to  quit  the  neighbourhood  of  Hull,  and  to  go 
further  from  Newcastle,  which  was  the  port  most  securely 
held  for  the  King.  As  usual  the  very  men  who  urged  the 
change  were  those  who  doubted  its  expediency  when  made. 
Hyde  wisely  thought  it  a  case  of  objections,  which  "  at  the 
entrance  of  great  actions,  cannot  be  too  much  deliberated, 
though,  in  the  execution,  they  shall  best  be  shut  out." 

>  Life.  i.  161. 


168  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

The  words  are  typical  of  Hyde's  character.  Alas  !  too  often 
the  Royalist  counsels  were  conducted  on  a  principle  exactly 
the  reverse  ! 

It  was  in  melancholy  mood  that  Charles  and  his  adherents 
moved  to  the  rendezvous.  On  the  way  he  attempted  to 
seize  Coventry,  but  met  with  a  repulse.  A  body  of  his 
horse,  under  Wilmot,^  made  a  somewhat  discreditable  retreat 
from  an  inferior  force.  At  Nottingham  there  was  no  great 
conflux  of  supporters.  Scarcely  a  regiment  was  yet  levied 
and  organized,  and  no  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition  was 
in  readiness.  "  On  the  evening  of  a  very  stormy  and  tem- 
pestuous day" — August  25th ^ — the  standard  was  erected, 
and  the  prevailing  sadness  detected  ill-omens  in  many 
circumstances.  By  an  untoward  accident  the  hurricane 
blew  the  standard  down,  and  it  could  not  be  fixed  again 
for  some  days. 

If  honest  doubts  like  those  of  Verney,  anxious  hearts  in 
those  who  could  gauge  the  lack  of  preparation,  counsels 
perplexed  by  disloyal  jealousies,  and  nerves  ready  to  conjure 
up  presages  of  ill,  were  not  enough  to  dishearten  the  King's 
party,  worse  news  soon  reached  them.  To  a  long  series 
of  treacheries  and  deceits,  Goring,^  now  added  the  disgrace 

■  Afterwards  Earl  of  Rochester. 

^  Other  accounts  indicate  the  22nd. 

*  The  two  Gorings,  father  and  son,  are  amongst  the  most  notable  figures 
in  a  period  when  notabilities  were  abundant.  George  Goring,  the  elder,  was 
born  about  1583,  and  early  in  life  became  attached  to  the  Court,  and  was 
cherished  there  for  his  bonhomie  and  wit,  and  as  an  efficient  deviser  of 
sports  and  entertainments.  But  he  had  a  shrewd  sense  of  worldly  advance- 
ment, and  amassed  large  wealth  by  grants  of  lucrative  monopolies.  He 
became  Lord  Goring  in  1628,  and,  having  benefited  largely  by  Court 
patronage,  he  did  not,  like  others,  lose  the  sense  of  gratitude.  He  spent 
freely  of  his  fortune  in  aid  of  the  Royal  cause,  and  was  a  devoted  adherent 
of  the  Queen  in  her  efforts  to  procure  equipment  for  the  Royahst  Army. 
In  1644  he  was  created  Earl  of  Norwich,  and  was  a  notable  figure  in  the 
second  Civil  War,  when  he  was  the  chief  organizer  of  the  Royalist  adherents 
in  Kent  and  Essex.  He  surrendered  to  Waller  after  the  siege  of  Colchester, 
and  was  more  fortunate  than  his  fello\ss  in  escaping  (by  the  casting  vote  of 
the  Speaker  Lenthal)  the  death  penalty.  He  was  in  exile  with  Charles  II., 
and  returned  at  the  Restoration — towards  which  he  gave  effective  help. 


1642]  THE  ROYAL  STANDARD  RAISED         169 

of  the  surrender  of  Portsmouth  which  he  had  finally  pledged 
himself  to  hold  for  the  King,  and  which  he  now  abandoned 
to  Waller,  whether  by  dehberate  treachery  or  by  a  neglect 
of  that  provision  of  defence  for  which  he  had  procured  the 
necessary  means  from  King  and  Parliament  at  once. 
Disaster  added  to  dejection  boded  ill  for  the  Royalist  cause. 
Things  were  going  ill,  too,  with  the  Marquis  of  Hertford  in 

He  became  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  died  in  1663.  He  was 
cherished  as  a  boon  companion,  and  a  good-natured  wit ;  but  left  no  reputa- 
tion for  capacity  or  effective  power. 

His  son,  Colonel  George  Goring,  was  a  much  more  remarkable  power  ; 
but  while  he  vied  with  his  father  as  a  boti  vivant,  he  had  a  reputation  for 
far  greater  capacity,  unfortunately  united  with  a  total  absence  of  fidelity 
to  any  cause.  He  had  many  qualities  that  might  have  given  him  a  higli 
place  amongst  his  contemporaries.  He  was  conspicuously  brave,  and  had 
earned  an  unquestioned  reputation  for  valour  in  war  abroad.  He  bore 
the  honourable  mark  of  military  service  in  permanent  lameness,  having  been 
severely  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Breda  ;  but  that,  so  far  from  marring  his 
appearance,  "  only  made  him  the  more  comely  and  prevailing,"  and 
enhanced  a  carriage  "  winning  and  graceful  in  all  its  motions."  "  He  had 
a  civility  which  shed  itself  all  over  his  countenance,  and  gathered  all  the 
eyes  and  applications  in  view ;  his  courage  was  notorious  and  confessed  ; 
his  wit  equal  to  the  best  and  in  the  most  universal  conceptions ;  and  his 
language  and  expression  natural,  sharp,  and  flowing,  adorned  with  a 
wonderful  seeming  modesty,  and  with  such  a  constant  and  perpetual 
sprightfulness  and  pleasantness  of  humour,  that  no  man  had  reason  to  bo 
ashamed  of  being  disposed  to  love  him,  or,  indeed,  of  being  deceived  by 
him."  This,  the  fullest  of  Hyde's  man}'  portraits  of  Goring,  is  given  in  the 
MSS.  of  Clarendon's  Life,  as  a  continuation  of  the  reference  to  Goring  in 
Book  V.  of  the  History  of  the  Rebellion,  p.  439.  See  vol.  vi.  of  the  History 
(edit.  1849),  \).  364,  Appendix  2,  M.  But,  withal.  Goring  was  a  consum- 
mate actor,  and  M'as  no  sooner  detected  in  the  basest  deception  than  he 
was,  with  scarcely  an  interval,  admitted  into  the  confidence  of  those  whom 
he  had  betrayed.  The  open  profligacy  of  his  life  did  not  alienate  even  the 
strictest  puritans,  to  whom  his  seeming  lack  of  hypocrisy  served  as  a 
guarantee  of  an  open  nature.  He  had  been  a  participator  in  the  i\rmy 
Plot,  which  the  King  refused  to  countenance,  but  made  his  peace  with  the 
Parliament  by  betraying  his  associates,  and  accusing  them  of  designs  to 
which  they  had  been  no  parties.  He  promised  to  hold  Portsmouth  for  the 
Queen,  and  at  the  same  time  professed,  in  his  place  in  the  House,  his  fidelity 
to  Parliament.  He  obtained  mone}'  for  its  defence  both  from  Parliament 
and  from  the  Queen,  and  then  neglected  to  make  it  safe  ;  and,  after  throwing 
ofiE  the  mask,  and  declaring  for  the  King,  he  surrendered  it  to  Sir  \\'illiam 
Waller  at  the  very  opening  of  the  war.  Again  he  returned  to  the  Royalist 
cause,  and  won  some  conspicuous  militarj^  successes.  But  even  his  con- 
summate military  skill  did  not  compensate  for  his  inveterate  deception, 
his  lack  of  discipline,  and  the  licentious  turbulence  of  his  life.  He  died 
(before  his  father)  in  1657,  an  exile  in  Spain,  and  in  straits  for  means  of 
support.     It  is  a  story  of  brilliant  parts  marred  by  unbounded  roguery. 


170  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR   [chap,  vii 

Somersetshire  ;  and  the  few  officers  of  vigour/  who  gathered 
small  bands  together  by  their  personal  influence,  found  no 
headquarters  to  which  they  might  resort.  Fortunately  for 
the  King  the  Parliamentary  forces  were  not  prepared  to 
use  the  opportunity  and  advance  against  him  at  Nottingham, 
where,  by  a  prompt  attack,  an  overwhelming  victory  could 
easily  have  been  obtained  by  any  fairly  equipped  force 
under  competent  leading.  Essex  did  not  leave  London  to  take 
command  till  September  7th ;  and  the  inferior  officers  were 
afraid  in  his  absence  to  take  the  initiative.  It  may  even 
be  that  some  of  the  leaders  shrank  at  this  early  stage, 
from  a  direct  attack  upon  the  King,  and  from  a  victory  which 
in  the  present  situation  might  have  been  something  of  an 
embarrassment.  But  the  position  was  sufficiently  critical 
to  suggest  to  some  amongst  the  counsellors  of  the  King 
that  it  was  expedient  to  make  overtures  for  peace.  It  was 
with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  the  King  was  brought  even 
to  discuss  the  proposal.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
Queen,  who  was  now  busy  in  gathering  supphes,  and  enlisting 
aid  abroad,  was  urging  that  course  of  unyielding  resistance, 
to  which  the  spirit  she  had  inherited  from  her  father  disposed 
her,  and  of  which  she  could  not  measure  either  the  danger  or 
the  difficulty.  To  suggestions  from  that  source  Charles 
rarely  turned  a  deaf  ear. 

The  Council  sat  long  into  the  night  discussing  the  problem 
of  offering  proposals  for  a  compromise  ;  and  although  the 
King's  assent  was  at  last  wrung  from  him,  the  indignity 
involved  moved  him  so  strongly  that  "  he  brake  out  into 
tears."  ^  The  next  day  the  message  was  ready— once  more 
the  work  of  Hyde — but  "  in  a  softer  and  calmer  tone  than 

'  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  to  move  was  Sir  Ralph  Hopton,  who  had 
now  shaken  the  dust  of  the  Parliament  off  his  shoes,  and  begun  that  long 
service  which  shines  conspicuous  for  its  unsullied  and  unselfish  loyalty. 

-  The  whole  scene  is  fully  described  in  the  History  of  the  Rebellion  (edit. 
1849),  vol.  vi.  Appendix,  p." 382. 


1642]  DEPRESSION   OF  THE   KING  171 

his  Majesty  had  been  accustomed  to  for  some  months  ;  "  ^ 
and  Southampton  and  Colepepper  set  out  on  their  journey 
to  London,  as  the  bearers  of  overtures  from  the  King. 

Charles  continued  in  deep  depression  and  "  cared  not  to 
be  entertained  with  any  discourse,  which  he  did  not  usually 
avoid."  It  was  to  Hyde  that  he  turned  to  express  his  real 
feeling.  He  drew  him  apart,  and  observing  that  he  looked 
sad — unlike  his  wont — he  told  him  "  he  had  been  drawn  to 
do  that  which  must  make  all  men  sad  who  had  any  love  and 
kindness  for  him."  Had  but  one  of  his  Council^  adhered 
to  him,  he  would  never  have  consented  to  make  this  address. 
He  had  almost  called  Hyde  to  his  aid,  but  forbore,  in  order 
not  to  involve  him  in  ill-will  by  opposing  the  others.  The 
message  itself  pleased  him  more  than  the  sending  it,  "  because 
he  had  used  no  mean  and  base  expressions  of  condescension 
to  them  ;  "  but  he  was  resolved,  treaty  or  no  treaty,  never 
to  consent  to  anything  "  that  might  be  to  the  prejudice  of 
any  of  his  friends  who  adhered."  One  wonders  whether 
the  ghost  of  Strafford  haunted  the  King,  that  he  made 
these  unasked-for  protestations.  By  the  vote  of  Parliament 
Hyde  was  already  exempted  from  any  possibihty  of  amnesty, 
and  he  knew  well  that  the  authority  of  a  defeated  King  was 
powerless  to  protect  him  against  their  vengeance.  Can 
Strafford's  dying  words,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in  Princes," 
have  found  an  echo  in  the  secret  places  of  his  heart  ? 

Hyde's  ^  reply  was  not  probably  intended  to  have  any 

*  It  is  given  in  the  History  of  the  Rebellion,  vi.  11. 

"  We  must  remember  that  Hyde  was  not  yet  formally  of  the  Council. 
But  it  does  not  appear  that  he  would  have  given  different  advice  from  the 
rest. 

^  In  Hyde's  own  graphic  description  of  this  scene  there  occurs  one  of 
those  passages  that  now  and  then  startle  us  in  reading  the  personal  history 
of  the  day,  and  bring  us  sharply  up  against  the  barrier  that  occasionally 
erects  itself  between  their  natures  and  ours.  We  admire  their  courtly 
dignity,  their  elaborate  courtesy,  their  deep-rooted  pride,  and  we  have 
often  to  acknowledge  their  lofty  ideal  of  character  and  their  high  sense  of 
public  duty.  Suddenly  we  find  ourselves  checked  by  a  phrase  of  formal 
and  specious  artificialitj-,  by  a  revolting  callousness,  by  a  condoning  of 


172  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR   [chap,  vii 

sarcastic  impHcation,  but  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  feeling  that 
in  his  heart  there  was  some  touch  of  irony.  He  at  once 
accepts  his  Majesty's  declaration,  not  as  a  statement  of  policy, 
but  as  an  apology  to  himself.  "  He  assured  his  Majesty  that 
the  message  and  his  sending  to  Parliament  did  not  in  the 
least  disturb  him."  If  a  treaty  followed,  his  Majesty  would 
be  bound  by  that,  and  could  not  cover  his  concession  by 
anything  that  he  might  conceive  it  to  imply.  "  The  interest 
of  all  particular  persons  must  be  subjected  to  public  con- 
venience and  peace ;  for  which  he  protested  he  was  himself 
very  cheerfully  prepared,  and  expected  as  sour  a  portion  as 
would  be  assigned  to  any  man  in  England."  On  the  whole, 
he  thought  the  message  would  do  good.  And  once  again, 
Hyde  knew  how  to  administer  good  counsel  without  offence. 

"  He  concluded  with  an  earnest  desire  to  his  Majesty, 
that  he  would  compose  his  own  countenance,  and  abolish 
that  infectious  sadness  in  his  own  looks  which  made  the 
greatest  impression  upon  men,  and  made  them  think  that  he 
found  his  condition  more  desperate  than  any  one  else  beUeved 
it  to  be.  The  King  was  very  pleased  with  the  discourse, 
and  told  him  he  was  a  very  good  comforter." 

Hyde  was  a  past  master  in  the  reading  of  character. 
Perhaps  it  was  well  that  the  conversation  had  no  auditor 
with  a  sarcastic  turn,  who  might  have  probed  the  royal 
sophistries. 

Southampton  and  Colepepper  were  received  with  scant 
courtesy,  and  the  overtures    for  accommodation  came  to 

conduct  that  with  us  would  banish  a  man  from  decent  society.  Once  or 
twice — and  this  is  one  of  the  occasions — Hyde  shows  a  strange  callous- 
ness. In  the  course  of  the  conversation,  he  told  the  King  that  he  was 
not  conscious  of  the  trouble  in  his  look  of  which  he  had  spoken ;  but  it 
might  be  there,  "for  he  had  that  very  morning  received  netcs  of  the  death  of  a 
son  of  his  ivhich  did  affect  him  though  it  would  not  disturb  him  long.''  One 
wonders,  did  the  struggles  and  dissensions  of  the  counsellors  weigh  so  much 
in  the  father's  heart,  that  the  real  sorrow  was  paralyzed  and  dumb  ?  Or 
was  Hyde  merely  adopting  the  mannerism  of  artificial  courtesy  ?  They 
spoke  in  other  language,  and  dressed  their  feelings  in  other  guise,  than  ours. 


1642]  FAILURE   OF   NEGOTIATIONS  173 

nothing  ;  nor  did  a  further  conciHatory  message  sent  by 
Falkland  have  any  better  effect.  The  Parhament  only 
renewed  its  defiant  tone,  and  demanded  as  a  preUminary 
to  all  treating  for  accommodation,  that  the  King's  standard 
should  be  taken  down,  his  declaration  recalled,  the  instruc- 
tions to  the  Commissioners  of  Array  countermanded,  and 
that  he  himself  should  return  to  London,  place  himself  in 
the  hands  of  his  Parhament,  and  be  guided  solely  by  their 
advice. 

By  such  a  message,  of  course,  Parhament  openly 
proclaimed  that  their  object  was  no  longer  redress  of 
grievances,  or  the  restoration  of  that  balance  in  the  constitu- 
tion which  they  believed  necessary  as  a  security  for  liberty  ; 
it  was  not  even  a  proposal  of  revolutionary  change,  which 
was  to  alter  fundamentally  the  government  of  England  ; 
their  claim  was  now  for  a  personal  tyranny  centred  in  the 
hands  of  a  small  and  indissoluble  group  of  men.  Aspirations 
that  had  taken  that  shape,  were  of  all  others  the  least  hkely 
to  permit  of  any  accommodation,  until  a  lesson  of  adversity 
had  been  learned.  But  Hyde  plainly  indicates  that  either 
in  his  own  view,  or  in  that  of  others  who  were  well-wishers, 
the  suggestion  that  the  King  should  return  to  London,  and 
appear  in  the  Parliament  House,  was  not  to  be  lightly  laid 
aside.  The  hopes  of  his  cause,  says  Hyde,  were  so  desperate 
"  that  he  was  privately  advised  by  those  whom  be  trusted  as 
much  as  any,  and  those  whose  affections  were  as  entire  to 
him  as  any  men's,  to  give  all  other  thoughts  over." '  If 
Hyde  really  points  at  himself  as  agreeing  in  this  advice, 
it  must  have  been  because  he  hoped  that  the  King's  return 
would  produce  a  revulsion  of  feeling,  and  enhearten  those 
who  were  willing,  if  only  they  had  dared,  to  declare 
against  the  excesses  of  Parliament.  It  would  at  best, 
however,  have  been  a  hazardous  risk  ;    and  perhaps  Hyde 

'  Rebellion,  vi.  15. 


174  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

means  to  give  a  hint  of  doubtfulness  when  he  adds,  "  It 
must  be  solely  imputed  to  his  Majesty's  own  magnanimity 
that  he  took  not  that  course." 

But  although  it  led  to  no  direct  result,  the  King's  professed 
inclination  to  an  accommodation  was  not  without  advantage. 
It  necessarily  led  to  differences  in  the  Parliamentary  camp, 
and  these  differences  produced  vacillation  and  delay.  Their 
forces,  at  first  so  much  in  excess  of  those  of  the  King,  were 
not  concentrated  in  any  one  plan,  and  were  still  without 
vigorous  leading.  On  the  other  hand,  the  King's  adherents 
gained  new  courage,  as  they  found  the  work  of  the  Commis- 
sions of  Array  prosper,  and  result  in  the  rapid  levying  of 
troops.  It  was  with  an  ever-increasing  attendance  that 
the  King  moved,  by  Derby  and  Stafford,  to  Shrewsbury, 
which  he  purposed  to  make  his  headquarters.  It  was  to 
Hyde  that  the  duty  had  been  entrusted  of  making  sure  that 
the  town  was  so  well  disposed  as  to  be  ready  to  admit  the 
King.  This  he  arranged  through  personal  friends  of  his  own, 
and  it  was  with  new  courage  and  confidence  that  the  Royalists 
found  that  they  constituted  a  goodly  martial  array  to  con- 
front the  enemies  of  their  King.  "  All  men  were  even 
wishing  for  the  Earl  of  Essex,  and  all  fears  were  vanished."  ^ 
The  King's  army  soon  mustered  6000  foot,  3000  horse,  and 
2000  dragoneers.^  Nor  were  there  wanting  other  circum- 
stances of  good  omen.  The  discipline  and  order  of  the 
army  were  admirable,  and  the  relations  with  the  country 
people  most  cordial.  Free  loans  and  contributions  poured  in 
abundantly,  and  the  pay  was  regular.  Unfortunately  Hyde 
was  soon  obliged  to  tell  another  story. 

Prince  Rupert,  the  nephew  of  the  King,  then  a  youth  of 
two-and-twenty  who  had  already  shown  mihtary  talents, 

'  History  of  Rebellion  (edit.  1849),  Appendix,  vol.  vi.  p.  387. 
^  The  dragoneers  were  a  sort  of  mounted  infantry,  armed  with  sword 
and  gun,  and  were  so  called  from  the  dragon's  head  on  their  carbines. 


PRINCE    RUPERT. 

(From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke.) 


1G42]  PLAN   OF   CAMPAIGN  175 

and  was  soon  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  dashing 
cavalry  leaders  on  either  side,  although  his  impetuous 
temper  and  impatience  of  control  were  destined  to  inflict 
as  much  evil  upon  the  Royalist  cause  as  his  undoubted 
courage  helped  it,  had  recently  joined  the  King.  He  was 
now  sent  forward  to  meet  Essex,  and  it  was  with  the  advanced 
guard  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  that  the  Royalists  under 
Rupert  had  the  first  encounter  of  the  war.  The  Prince's 
impetuous  leading  won  the  day  ;  and  the  honour  of  the  first 
victory  lay  with  him. 

It  was  now  decided  not  to  attack  Essex  at  Worcester, 
where  the  country  was  ill  fitted  for  the  cavalry  manoeuvres, 
in  which  the  Royalists  chiefly  hoped  for  success,  but  to 
advance  on  London  through  the  more  open  grass  country  of 
Northamptonshire  and  Warwickshire.  There  was  little  doubt 
but  that  Essex,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  movement,  would 
place  himself  across  their  march,  and  the  opportunity  that 
they  desired,  of  a  trial  of  strength,  would  then  be  offered. 

The  King's  general  was  the  Earl  of  Lindsey,  a  man  well 
seasoned  in  the  foreign  wars,  who,  although  he  had  all  the 
roughness  and  the  easy  licence  of  a  soldier  of  fortune,  was  of 
unimpeached  honour,  of  sterling  loyalty,  and  added  to  great 
military  skill,  the  dignity  and  influence  of  high  descent,  and 
a  fortune,  impaired  indeed  by  the  freedom  of  his  hfe,  but 
still  ample.  Such  a  man,  had  his  hfe  been  spared,  would 
have  been  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  King.  He  had  as  little 
sympathy  with  the  selfish  trickery  which  marked  many 
of  the  courtiers,  as  he  had  with  the  sanctimonious  manner 
and  the  nonconformist  enthusiasm  of  their  foes.  His  was 
a  type  which  found  little  place  amidst  either  the  self-seeking 
luxury  of  the  Court  cliques,  or  the  perfervid  zealots  of  the 
other  camp.  Even  in  the  brief  period  granted  him  to  display 
his  loyalty  he  found  his  authority  as  general  flouted  by  the 
reckless  and  fatal  arrogance  of  Prince  Rupert,  whom  the 


176  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR   [chap,  vii 

King's  indulgence  freed  from  all  the  bonds  of  discipline. 
Under  him,  Sir  Nicholas  Byron,  Colonels  Fielding  and  Went- 
worth,  and  Sir  Jacob  Astley  commanded  the  regiments  of 
foot.  Prince  Rupert,  with  General  Ruthen  as  nominal 
adviser,  commanded  the  horse  ;  and  the  dragoons  or  mounted 
infantry  were  led  by  Sir  Arthur  Aston.  Full  of  courage 
and  good  heart  as  they  were,  they  were  far  inferior  to  the 
force  under  Essex  in  numbers,  and  still  more  conspicuously 
so  in  arms  and  equipments.  But  there  was  one  body,  the 
King's  troop  of  guards,  under  Lord  Bernard  Stewart,  brother 
to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  which  was  in  itself  a  match  for  any 
regiment  which  the  Parliament  could  raise.  It  consisted 
entirely  of  "  persons  of  honour  and  quality,"  equipped  at 
their  own  expense,  fighting  for  all  that  was  dear  to  them, 
trained  from  their  boyhood  to  arms,  and  pledged  to  maintain 
their  honour  by  every  motive  that  could  appeal  to  their 
feelings  of  ambition  or  of  shame.  With  them  there  followed 
another  troop  consisting  of  their  squires  and  attendants, 
under  Sir  William  Killigrew — vying  with  their  masters  in 
equipment  and  in  zeal. 

The  King  advanced  by  rapid  marches  by  Bridgenorth, 
Wolverhampton,  Birmingham,  and  Kenilworth  to  the 
borders  of  Northamptonshire  and  Warwickshire.  Essex 
had  set  out  two  days  later  from  Worcester,  and  for  some 
days  the  armies  marched  in  almost  parallel  columns  at 
a  distance  of  about  twenty  miles,  and  ignorant,  it  would 
appear,  of  their  proximity.  On  October  22nd,  the  King 
reached  Edgecot,  on  the  Northamptonshire  border ;  and 
while  there  he  received  reports  from  Prince  Rupert,  whose 
scouts  had  discovered  that  Essex,  with  his  army,  was  only 
seven  miles  off,  at  Keinton  in  Warwickshire.  Here  it  was 
resolved  on  the  next  morning,^  to  show  fight. 

The  work   of  Hyde,   as   servant   of   the  King,  with  a 

*  Sunday,  October  23rd. 


1642]  EDGEHILL  177 

preponderating  influence  throughout  the  long  struggle 
which  was  to  ensue,  did  not  lie,  in  any  degree  whatever,  in 
the  battlefield.  His  knowledge  of  mihtary  affairs  was 
small,  and  he  never  attempts  to  pass  judgment  on  matters 
of  strategy  or  warlike  tactics,  other  than  that  which  a  civilian 
may  without  presumption  form,  after  weighing  the  verdict  of 
competent  mihtary  authority.  In  his  biography,  therefore,  a 
full  or  detailed  record  of  the  battles  of  the  Civil  War,  or  of  the 
later  campaigns  in  Scotland,  and  in  Ireland,  can  find  no  place. 
It  was  his  only  to  shape  the  pohcy  and  adapt  it  to  the  varying 
fortunes  of  the  war.  In  two  years  and  a  half  from  this  date, 
he  passed  to  a  distance  even  from  the  scenes  of  war,  and 
spent  the  later  years  of  the  contest  elsewhere  than  in 
England. 

But  the  battle  of  Edgehill,  which  took  place  on  that  clear 
calm  day  of  late  October,  merits  some  special  attention. 
In  the  forces  engaged,  in  the  spirit  with  which  they  undertook 
the  fight,  and  in  the  fatal  lack  of  discipline  and  generalship, 
by  which  the  full  fruit  of  what  might  have  been  a  decisive 
victory,  was  thrown  away,  we  can  gather  much  both  of  the 
strength  and  of  the  weakness  of  the  Eoyal  cause,  and  of 
the  immature  and  unwieldy  forces  behind  the  Parliament, 
which  time  and  discipline  were  required  to  hammer  into 
shape.  Within  these  few  hours  each  party  showed  much  of 
the  stuff  of  which  it  was  made. 

Even  during  the  march,  symptoms  of  dissension  and 
jealousy  had  appeared.  Soon  after,  we  have  to  mark  the 
dangerous  rift  between  the  civilian  courtiers  and  the  mihtary 
commanders  of  the  Crown.  But  now,  even  within  the 
military  ranks,  that  discipline  which  was  so  imperiously 
necessary  was  shaken  by  the  mutinous  spirit  of  independence 
of  which  Prince  Rupert  gave  the  chief  example.  Relying 
upon  the  King's  natural  affection,  this  novice  obtained  an 
exemption  from  all  orders  but  those  of  the  King,  and  flouted 

VOL;   I.  N 


178  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

the  commands  of  the  military  veterans  to  whose  hands  the 
King  had  committed  the  fortunes  of  his  troops. 

Those  theatrical  displays  of  personal  courage,  which  have 
thrown  a  certain  halo  about  his  memory,  were  in  reality  but 
a  form  of  ambitious  selfishness,  the  very  negation  of  the 
military  instinct,  and  worthy  to  be  dealt  with  only,  but  for 
his  favoured  rank  and  untoward  influence,  by  the  summary 
methods  of  the  drumhead  court-martial. 

The  details  of  the  fight  have  been  given  in  countless 
military  histories  of  the  war.     On  the  Saturday  afternoon, 
the  King  had  reached  Edgecot,  in  Northamptonshire,  four 
miles  from  Banbury  ;   and  late  that  night  he  received  news 
from  Prince  Rupert  that  the  enemy's  headquarters  were  at 
Keinton,  on  the  borders  of  Warwickshire.     The  King  then 
appointed  Edgehill — a  height  some  two  miles  from  Keinton — 
as  the  rendezvous.     On  the  Sunday  morning,  Essex  saw  that 
the  hill  was  occupied  ;  and  without  waiting  for  two  regiments 
of  foot,  and  one  of  horse,  that  were  a  day's  march  in  the  rear, 
he  deployed  his  army  into  an  open  campaign  ground  that 
lay   between   Keinton   and   Edgehill.     The  Royalist   forces 
(some  of  them  eight  miles  away)  were  hurried  on,  as  it  was 
determined  to  attack  that  day  ;    but  it  was  not  till  one 
o'clock  that  the  advance  could  be  made,  and  the  battle  did 
not  begin  till  three — with  but  Httle  left  of  the  short  light 
of  a  late  October  afternoon.     It  was  doubtful  whether  so 
late  an  attack  was  wise  ;  but  the  Royalists  were  in  unfriendly 
country,  and  knew  that  next  day  would  see  a  large  increase 
in  the  enemy's  forces.     In  some  hurry  and  confusion.  Prince 
Rupert  began  the  charge,  and  the  cavalry,  carrymg  all  before 
them,  recklessly  continued  the  pursuit,  leaving  the  King 
defenceless.    Fortunately  the  remaining  part  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary force  did  not  snatch  the  opportunity,  and  although 
a  Royalist  victory  was  thrown  away,  it  was  not  turned  into 
a  reverse.     Both  armies  kept  the  field  during  the  night, 


1642]  INCIDENTS   OF   THE   FIGHT  179 

but  retired  the  next  morning.  The  King  was  able  to  seize 
Banbury ;  and  this  gave  him  some  fair  ground  for  claiming 
the  honour  of  victory. 

The  battle  of  Edgehill  has  a  place  in  Hyde's  biography 
which  cannot  be  claimed  for  the  other  incidents  of  the  war, 
not  only  because  it  gives  us  so  clear  a  picture  of  the  material 
difficulties  with  which  pohtical  management  had  to  deal, 
but  also  because  he  was  himself  actually  present  at  the 
fight.  When  the  Prince's  message,  announcing  the  presence 
of  Essex's  army,  was  brought  to  the  King  at  Edgecot,  Hyde, 
with  Colepepper  and  Falkland,  was  at  Culworth,  about  a 
mile  distant  from  the  King.  He  at  once  went  oH'  to  join  the 
King,  and  was  with  him  when  the  King's  horse  were  making 
their  slow  descent  from  Edgehill  into  the  plain  below.  There, 
it  appears,  he  remained  until  the  fortune  of  the  day  seemed 
doubtful,  and  the  Earl  of  Lindsey  had  fallen,  fatally  wounded. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Duke  of  York,  boys  of  twelve 
and  nine  years  of  age,  were  close  by  under  the  guard  of  the 
Pensioners,  and  the  King  ordered  them  and  their  guard, 
with  Hyde,  to  withdraw  towards  the  hill.  As  evening  fell, 
they  saw  a  troop  of  horse,  which  was  taken  for  part  of  the 
King's  forces,  approaching,  and  advanced  towards  them. 
They  were  really  the  ParUamentary  horse  under  Sir  WiUiam 
Balfour  ;  but  the  mistake  was  discovered  just  in  time,  and 
the  Princes  were  sent  back  to  Edgecot,  by  the  orders  of  the 
King.  Had  they  been  seized,  the  event  would  have  been  an 
untoward  blow  for  the  hopes  of  the  King.  Falkland  had  been 
with  Wilmot's  troop  during  the  afternoon,  and  urgently 
pressed  that  they  should  attack  Balfour.  But  Wilmot 
preferred  a  cautious  inaction,  and  by  his  supineness  Balfour 
was  able  to  get  off  in  safety.  The  King  was  pressed  to  retire 
towards  the  west,  and  to  leave  the  foot  and  cannon  at  the 
mercy  of  the  enemy  ;  but  Colepepper,  who  was  soldier  as 
well  as  statesman,  and  had  borne  himself  well  durhig  the 


180  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

day  with  Rupert's  horse,  vehemently  protested,  and  his 
protest  was  approved  by  the  King,  who  refused  to  quit  the 
field  during  the  whole  of  a  cold  and  frosty  night.  Next 
morning,  with  daylight,  it  was  proposed  to  renew  the  charge  ; 
but  the  numbers  were  too  small,  and  the  men  and  horses 
too  much  spent,  to  make  further  efforts.  Fortunately  the 
enemy  were  equally  unwilling  to  begin  the  fight  again. 

It  had  been  carefuUy  planned  that,  before  the  fight  began, 
a  proclamation  should  be  made,  by  herald,  of  a  free  pardon 
for  all  who  would  lay  down  their  arms  ;  and  it  was  hoped 
that  this  would  cause  heavy  defection  from  the  Parliamentary 
force.  In  the  hurry  of  the  first  charge  this  carefully  planned 
design  was  foiled,  and  Sir  William  Le  Neve,  the  herald, 
was  made  prisoner  before  the  proclamation  could  be  read. 
The  Parliamentary  ofiicers  were  in  no  mood  to  pay  attention 
to  the  cumbrous  rules  of  heraldry,  and  Le  Neve's  expostula- 
tions were  in  vain.  His  proclamation  was  snatched  from 
him,  and  he  was  asked  whether  the  King  and  Prince  were 
in  the  field.  Essex  asked  the  question  because  he  fancied 
the  King  was  not  there,  and  because  the  army  had  been 
made  to  believe  that  they  were  to  fight,  not  against  the  King 
himself,  but  against  the  band  of  malignants  who  kept  the 
King  from  Parliament.  Finally,  Le  Neve  was  blindfolded, 
conducted  to  the  outposts  of  the  army,  and  there  dismissed. 

Each  side  drew  off  and  the  fight  was  not  renewed.^  But 
if  each  could  claim  a  partial  victory,  the  King  had  at  least 
shown  that  he  knew  how  to  fight  in  person  along  with  his 
supporters.  That  courage,  which  many  of  his  acts  might 
make  us  doubt,  and  which  was  to  grow  in  strength  and  in 
dignity  with  new  trials,  had  begun  to  show  itself. 

But  even  the  credit  of  this  doubtful  victory  had  been 
dearly  bought  by  the  Boyahsts.  Lord  Lindsey,  the  rough 
but  loyal  commander  whose  last  hours  had  been  embittered 

'  See  History  of  Rebellion,  vol.  vi.  App.  391. 


1642]  ALAEM   IN   LONDON  181 

by  learning  the  rash  orders  that  freed  the  Prince  from  the 
rules  of  discipline,  was  carried  off  the  field,  a  prisoner  and 
mortally  wounded,  and  died  in  a  few  hours.  Vemey's 
forebodings  were  fulfilled,  and  his  perplexities  ended  by 
his  death.  Lord  Auvigny,  the  brother  of  the  Duke  of 
Eichmond,  "of  a  very  clear  courage  and  a  gentle  and  winning 
disposition,"  fell  in  the  first  charge  ;  a  fate  which  was  soon 
to  befall  two  of  his  brothers.  On  the  other  hand,  of  five 
thousand  who  fell  on  the  field  it  was  computed  that  two-thirds 
belonged  to  the  Parliamentary  army,  and  one-third  to  that 
of  the  King. 

The  result  of  the  battle  might  be  doubtful,  but  it  was 
enough  to  spread  dire  terror  in  the  Parliament  and  in 
London.  It  seemed  as  if  the  army  of  Essex  was  broken  up 
and  dispersed.  Many  had  marched  out  in  the  confident  hope 
that  the  mere  show  of  their  power  would  scatter  the  few 
adherents  of  the  King,  and  that  the  war  would  be  ended 
without  a  fight.  The  idle  rumour  had  spread  that  the  King 
was  not  with  them,  or  that  if  he  were  there  it  was  only  as  a 
prisoner  carried  about  against  his  will.  Now  it  was  seen 
that  the  King  was  leading,  in  person,  a  formidable  army  of 
that  part  of  his  subjects  who  were  best  trained  in  war. 
For  the  first  time  the  courage  of  the  new-levied  Parliamen- 
tary soldiers  was  tried  by  the  grim  reahties  of  war ;  no 
wonder  that  at  the  first  shock  the  nerves  of  the  citizen 
soldiers  gave  way.  The  news  was  first  brought  by  the 
fugitives,  many  of  whom  reached  St.  Albans,  thirty  miles 
away,  before  dark,  never  having  drawn  bridle  since  they 
quitted  the  field.  All,  they  reported,  was  lost,  and  the  King's 
army  was  advancing  in  irresistible  force.  The  Earl  of 
Essex  had  fallen,  and  in  his  dying  words  had  bidden  each 
man  shift  for  himself. 

Doubts  were  soon  thrown  upon  these  frenzied  reports 
of  terrified  fugitives.     On  Monday  afternoon.  Lord  Holland 


182  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

read  in  Parliament  a  report  from  Lord  Essex,  admitting 
the  first  impression  made  by  the  King's  troops,  but  averring 
that  "  the  conclusion  was  prosperous."  Lord  Hastings, 
however,  entered  the  House  soon  after  "  with  frighted  and 
ghastly  looks,  and  positively  declared  all  to  be  lost  against 
whatsoever  they  believed  or  flattered  themselves  with." 
For  eight  and  forty  hours  they  were  the  victims  of  varying 
reports ;  until,  with  a  promptitude  that  was  at  once  pious 
and  businesslike,  they  put  an  end  to  doubts  by  passing  a 
resolution  "  that  their  army  had  the  victory,"  and  proved  it 
beyond  gainsaying  by  appointing  a  day  for  a  solemn  thanks- 
giving. 

But  in  spite  of  a  victory  so  incontestably  determined  by 
the  happy  expedient  of  a  Parliamentary  vote,  the  prevailing 
desire  to  make  overtures  for  an  accommodation  could  not 
be  resisted.  The  King  had,  from  the  battlefield,  after 
leaving  a  garrison  at  Banbury,  repaired  to  his  own  royal 
manor  of  Woodstock,  and  from  thence  to  Oxford,  where  he 
had  been  received  with  exuberant  loyalty,  and  where  the 
breaches  in  his  army  were  soon  repaired.  In  an  ill-moment, 
as  Hyde  thought,  a  resolution  was  taken  to  push  the  royal 
army  closer  to  the  metropolis,  and  the  King  marched  to 
Reading,  where  he  threatened  London  at  a  distance  of  only 
thirty  miles.  It  was  a  temptation  to  further  advances  which 
in  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  King's  counsellors  involved 
grave  danger  to  his  cause. 

We  have  already  seen  the  rapid  growth  of  jealousy  in 
the  King's  army,  and  the  lack  of  discipline  to  which  it  gave 
rise.  Prince  Rupert  had  plenty  of  imitators  who  were 
ready  to  vie  with  him  in  presumption,  and  in  whose  view  the 
constitution  was  to  be  settled  by  the  arbitrament  of  the 
sword,  and  the  spoils  of  victory  were  to  fall  to  those  by 
whose  hand  that  sword  was  wielded.  Flushed  with  his 
easy  triumph,  Prince  Rupert  had  neither  the  experience 


1642]        SCHEME   OF  ADVANCE   ON   LONDON      183 

to  understand,  the  good  sense  to  learn,  nor  was  he  in  the 
mood  to  be  advised,  as  to  the  real  conditions  of  the 
struggle.  It  seemed  to  him  that  the  only  course  to  be 
followed  by  the  King  was  to  advance  in  triumph  on  the 
capital.  The  mutinous  bands  of  revolted  citizens  were  to  be 
forced  upon  their  knees.  And  at  the  centre  of  Government, 
his  victorious  soldiers  were  to  dictate  to  the  nation  the  terms 
on  which  they  would  be  permitted  to  return  to  their  alle- 
giance, and  take  any  modicum  of  liberty  permitted  by  the 
gracious  bounty  of  those  who  had  taught  them  their  duty. 
That  was  the  danger  which  Hyde,  and  those  who  thought 
with  him,  rightly  feared.  It  has  been  represented  ^  that 
Hyde's  hesitation  about  the  advance  arose  from  his  secret  fear 
that  Charles  would  no  longer  accept  the  position  of  a  con- 
stitutional King,  but  would  have  attempted,  in  the  hour  of 
triumph,  to  undo  all  that  had  been  done.  Such  an  hypo- 
thesis would  convict  the  King  of  little  else  than  madness, 
and  Hyde  of  a  dehberate  breach  of  loyalty  to  his 
master.  No  sane  man  could  have  dreamed  that  any  such 
doubtful  victory  as  had  been  won  would  induce  the  Parlia- 
mentary leaders  to  assent  to  the  annulment  of  all  the  work 
of  reform  that  had  been  accomplished  ;  nor  is  there  any 
evidence  to  support  the  view  either  that  Charles  thought  of 
it,  or  that  Hyde  suspected  him  of  such  a  thought.  But 
Hyde  had  seen  enough  to  make  him  dread  the  unbridled 
recklessness  of  many  whose  words  carried  weight  with  the 
army.  He  knew  the  arrogance  of  their  pretensions,  and 
the  grasping  selfishness  of  their  aims.  Already  he  felt 
that  they  were  growing  jealous  of  the  counsellors,  and  anxious 
to  undermine  their  credit  with  the  King.  An  advance  to 
London,  followed  by  success,  however  temporary,  would 

*  This  is  the  view  which  approves  itself  to  the  orthodox  Whiggism  of 
Mr.  Lister,  who  represents  Hyde  as  deliberately  acting  so  as  to  thwart  what 
he  understood  to  be  the  wish  and  intention  of  the  King. 


184  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

have  placed  the  capital  at  their  mercy  ;  and  habits  of  plunder 
and  of  free  booty  are  soon  learned  by  an  army,  and  not 
easily  forgotten.  One  such  success,  followed  by  the  inevit- 
able revenge  and  reprisals,  would  have  made  a  settlement 
impossible,  and  might  have  crushed  the  monarchy  for  ever. 
It  was  in  the  express  interests  of  his  master,  and  to  avoid 
the  pressure  of  a  military  faction  that  might  become  as 
insolent  to  the  Crown  as  to  the  people,  that  Hyde  desired 
to  avoid  these  dangers  ;  not  because  he  fancied  that  a  success 
might  help  Charles  to  realize  a  vain  dream  of  establishing  an 
undisputed  absolutism  in  England. 

What  Hyde  dreaded  was  exactly  what  came  to  pass. 
The  overtures  were  made  and  accepted.  The  King  spoke 
of  returning  to  Windsor,  and  there  carrying  on  negotiations 
with  Commissioners  from  Parliament ;  and  there  seemed 
every  prospect  that  the  preliminaries  would  be  arranged. 
But  by  a  fatal  error,  over-persuaded  by  the  youthful  im- 
petuosity of  Prince  Rupert,  Charles  allowed  his  troops  to 
advance  so  near  to  the  capital  as  Brentford,  where  a  sharp 
encounter  took  place  with  the  Parliamentary  troops.  They 
had  advanced  too  close  to  the  hive,  and  the  bees  burst  out 
with  an  irritation  that  made  their  sting  the  more  dangerous. 
The  nerves  of  the  new  soldiers  had  once  been  shaken  ;  but 
the  lesson  had  taught  them  steadiness.  The  triumph  of 
the  cavaliers  might  be  pushed  too  far.  The  troops  of  the 
Parliament  began  to  see  that  the  RoyaUstswere  not  invincible, 
and  grew  tired  of  renewed  overtures  for  peace.  In  vain 
did  the  King  try — as  he  had  been  forced  to  try  before — to 
find  excuses  for  his  error.  The  attack  on  Brentford  had  been 
made  in  what  was  in  reality,  if  it  was  not  technically,  an 
armistice,  during  which  the  preliminaries  for  a  conference 
were  to  be  discussed.  An  explanation  was  necessary  ;  and 
explanations,  however  meritorious,  are  apt  to  bear  a 
suspicious  resemblance  to  the  submissiveness  of  apology. 


1642]         WINTEK   QUAETERS   AT   OXFORD  185 

The  closeness  of  the  danger  had  stimulated  the  contributions 
of  the  Parliament's  supporters  ;  its  repulse  had  aroused 
new  courage;  and  Parliament  resolved  to  try  once  more 
the  hazard  of  war,  before  they  involved  themselves  in  the 
possible  meshes  of  a  conference.  The  Royahst  troops  were 
drawn  off  to  Reading ;  and  a  declaration  was  issued  by  the 
King  to  soothe  the  susceptibilities  that  had  been  aroused. 
Hyde  disliked  the  whole  business,  and  there  is  perhaps  a 
little  mischievous  intention  in  his  careful  statement  that  the 
declaration  was  one  of  the  few  which  other  occupations 
rendered  him  unable  to  undertake,  and  that  its  author 
was  Falkland.  It  certainly  does  not  stand  on  the  same  level, 
either  in  cogency  of  argument,  or  dignity  of  style,  as  those 
for  which  Hyde  was  responsible. 

The  seeming  chance  of  peace  was  gone ;  but  it  was  in 
no  downcast  mood  that  the  Royalists  fixed  their  winter 
quarters  at  Oxford,  towards  the  close  of  November.  There, 
in  the  chosen  home  of  loyalty,  surrounded  by  devoted 
adherents,  and  amidst  scenes  that  were  congenial  at  once 
in  themselves  and  in  their  associations,  the  King  and  his 
immediate  advisers  settled  down  for  what  were  to  be  the 
last  few  months  of  peace  that  were  to  brighten  that  career 
round  which  the  shadows  were  fast  gathering.  The  comfort, 
and  even  the  dignity,  of  some  kingly  state  were  not  absent. 
Over  a  large  portion  of  the  nation  his  authority  was  sub- 
mitted to  without  question ;  and  the  ardour  of  loyalty 
was  never  stronger  amongst  his  devoted  supporters.  With 
foreign  states  he  still  maintained  the  high  terms  of  sovereign 
authority,  and  his  right  to  grant  honours  and  dignities  was 
not  seriously  disputed. 

Within  the  stately  precincts  of  St.  John's,  the  Court 
had  no  unseemly  lodgings  in  those  quadrangles  which  had 
been  reared  by  the  loving  care  of  the  faithful  Archbishop, 
who  in  the  lonely  and  weary  hours  of  his  imprisonment, 


186  FIEST  CAMPAIGN  OF  CIVIL  WAR  [chap,  vii 

must  have  sadly  pictured  to  himself  that  Court  in  which 
he  had  once  been  a  moving  spirit,  haunting  those  cloisters 
and  gardens  that  he  loved  so  well.  Within  an  easy  ride, 
the  King  had  his  own  vast  forest  and  ancient  palace  of 
Woodstock,  amidst  those  scenes  which  the  imagination  of 
Scott  has  filled  with  so  vivid  a  picture  of  the  time. 
Hyde  found  a  home  at  All  Souls',  where  his  old  friend, 
Dr.  Sheldon,  was  Warden,  and  where  he  was  surrounded 
with  friends  that  must  have  recalled  to  him  the  happy  days 
spent  at  Tew  and  Burford,  under  Falkland's  hospitable 
roof.  In  Christ  Church,  the  King  himself  was  housed,  and 
in  Wolsey's  splendid  Hall,  a  remnant  of  the  Parliament 
was  yet  to  assemble  and  give  their  counsel  to  their  King. 
When  the  Queen  returned,  it  was  at  Merton  that  she  found 
lodgings  not  unfitting  for  the  state  of  her  Court.  For 
these  months,  had  they  been  able  to  forget  the  grim  menace 
of  the  certain  renewal  of  Civil  War,  and  had  they  not  been 
harassed  by  the  unceasing  anxiety  of  insufficient  prepara- 
tion, Hyde  and  his  companions  might  have  found  in  their 
surroundings,  both  of  scene  and  of  society,  much  to  cheer 
them  in  the  winter's  suspense. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HYDE    IN    THE    COURT    AT    OXFORD 

The  Court  and  the  Eoyalist  army  settled  at  Oxford  in 
November,  1642,  for  their  winter  quarters,  after  the  battle 
of  Edgehill.  Marlborough  was  soon  after  captured  by 
Wilmot,  and  the  Royalist  influence  was  materially  strength- 
ened in  the  Midlands  and  the  west,  while  in  the  north  New- 
castle had  considerable  success  ;  but  between  York  and 
Oxford  the  Parliamentary  forces  held  a  strong  position. 
Meanwhile  some  changes  in  the  personal  aspect  of  the  Court, 
which  count  for  much  in  the  biography  of  Hyde,  were 
proceeding.  By  an  untoward  accident,  a  letter  from  Charles 
to  the  Queen  (then  preparing  to  return  to  England  with  a 
supply  of  arms  and  money)  was  intercepted  and  published 
by  the  Parliament.  It  contained  some  awkward  revelations. 
The  King  spoke  freely  on  the  irksomeness  of  his  position 
from  the  constant  importunity  of  those  around  him  for 
honours,  office,  and  preferments.  He  named  the  applicants, 
and  sought  the  Queen's  advice  in  regard  to  the  selection, 
promising  that  until  he  received  that  advice  he  would  make 
no  appointments,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  which  were 
urgently  required.  He  thought  of  making  the  honest  and 
trusty  Nicholas  Master  of  the  Wards,  from  his  present  post 
of  Secretary  of  State ;  and  then,  he  went  on  to  say,  "  I 
must  make  Ned  Hyde  Secretary  of  State,  for  the  truth  is, 
I  can  trust  no  one  else."  The  publication  of  such  a  letter 
did  not  add  to  the  dignity  of  the  royal  resolution,  and  it 


188       HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

was  not  likely  to  conciliate  for  Hyde  the  favour  of  dis- 
appointed applicants. 

It  was  from  the  King  himself  that  Hyde  first  learned  the 
existence  of  this  letter ;  and  the  King  proposed  to  make 
amends  for  it  by  nominatuag  him  at  once  as  Secretary  of 
State.  To  this  Hyde  was  strongly  opposed  ;  he  had  no  mind 
to  oust  Nicholas — to  whom  the  new  office  proposed  for  him 
was  likely  to  be  of  little  profit  in  the  present  circumstances, 
when  wards  were  likely  to  pay  little  heed  to  royal  dispositions 
— and  he  felt  himself  unqualified  for  the  post  by  his  ignorance 
of  foreign  languages,  and  by  being  entirely  unversed  in 
foreign  affairs.  The  King  made  light  of  bis  objections, 
and  bade  him  consult  Nicholas  upon  the  subject.  Nicholas 
was  at  first  well  pleased  with  the  proposal ;  but  Hyde  took 
pains  to  show  him  that  it  was  not  for  his  advantage,  and 
assured  him  that  he  had  no  mind  to  profit  at  Nicholas's 
expense.^  Just  at  this  time,  the  office  of  Master  of  the  Rolls 
fell  vacant  by  the  death  of  Sir  Charles  Caesar,  and  this  gave 
the  King  the  chance  of  promotuag  Colepepper  to  that  post, 
and  appointing  Hyde  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  his 
place.  This  course  was  strongly  urged  by  Falkland,  who 
desired  to  see  his  old  friend  and  associate  a  member  of  the 
Council  officially,  as  he  already  was,  in  fact.  This  new 
proposal  Hyde  was  not  unwilling  to  entertain.  Another 
hitch  in  the  arrangements  now  arose.  Colepepper  had  hoped 
to  retain  both  offices,  and  was  in  no  mind  to  res'gn  the 
Chancellorship.  It  was  only  the  warm  expostulations  of 
Falkland  and  Digby,  supported  by  the  King,  that  compelled 
Colepepper  to  make  way,  and  the  circumstance  aggravated 
that  jealousy  between  him  and  Hyde,  of  which  the  difference 
between  their  views  and  temperaments  had  already  laid 

1  Hyde's  record  of  their  interview  sho'ns  how  cordial  were  their  terms. 
On  Hyde's  arrival  Nicholas  greeted  him  as  his  son.  "  It  was  not,"  said 
Hyde,  "  the  part  of  a  good  son  to  undo  his  father,  or  to  become  his  son  that 
he  might  undo  him  "  (Lije,  i.  169). 


1643]       HYDE  CHANCELLOR   OF  EXCHEQUER  189 

the  foundations.  Colepepper  saw  with  regret  that  Hyde's 
influence  at  the  Council  was  hkely  to  be  at  least  as  potent 
as  his  own.  It  was  not  till  February  that  Hyde  was  at 
last  sworn  in  as  Privy  Councillor,  and  a  week  later  he  was 
appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  At  the  same  time, 
he  was  knighted,  and  hereafter  we  must  know  him  as  Sir 
Edward  Hyde.  The  King  told  him,  with  much  grace, 
"  which  was  not  natural  in  him  upon  such  occasions,"  ^  how 
content  he  was  in  his  new  minister,  and  added, "  that  he  was 
very  fortunate,  because  he  verily  believed  that  nobody 
was  angry  at  his  preferment."  Hyde  himself  knew  better. 
"  He  had  great  enviers,  of  many  who  thought  he  had  run  too 
fast."^  The  leaders  of  the  aristocracy  were  inclined  to  think 
that  such  posts  belonged  to  their  class  of  right.  Those  of 
his  own  profession  were  jealous  that  a  young  man  of  thirty- 
three,  who  had  shown  no  great  love  of  their  society,  and  no 
ardent  devotion  to  the  practice  of  the  law,  should  have 
obtained  a  preferment  for  which  they  thought  themselves 
fully  quahfied.  Above  all,  the  appointment  had  the  unusual 
character  of  being  made  neither  by  the  interposition  nor 
by  the  privity  of  the  Queen  ;  and  that  lady  was  apt  to  think 
that  those  who  rose  without  her  aid  would  not  be  equally 
at  her  disposal.  Hyde  adds,  with  some  bitterness,  that 
the  perferment  "  was  not  the  more  unwelcome  to  him 
from  that  circumstance."  In  title  and  appearance  the  post 
was  a  great  one  for  a  man  so  young  to  have  attained.  But 
it  was  likely  to  bring  with  it  more  of  burden  in  care  and 
responsibihty  than  either  of  credit  or  emolument.  He  was 
envied  for  obtaining  that  which  only  duty  and  conscience 
forced  him  to  accept.  The  difficulties  to  which  he  felt 
himself  exposed  could  not  find  better  expression  than  in  the 

'  Life,  i.  171.     Hyde's  narrative  loses  nothing  by  such  casual  words  of 
portraiture,  deftly  introduced. 
-  Lije,  i.  171. 


190      HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

words,  evidently  extorted  from  him  by  the  memory  of  many 
bitter  jealousies — 

"  It  were  to  be  wished,"  he  says/  "  that  persons  of  the 
greatest  birth,  honour,  and  fortune,  would  take  that  care 
of  themselves  by  education,  industry,  literature,  and  a  love 
of  virtue,  to  surpass  all  other  men  in  knowledge  and  in  all 
other  qualifications  necessary  for  great  actions,  as  far  as 
they  do  in  quahty  and  titles,  that  princes,  out  of  them, 
might  always  choose  men  fit  for  all  employments,  and  high 
trusts,  which  would  exceedingly  advance  their  service, 
when  the  reputation  and  respect  of  the  person  carries  some- 
what with  it  that  facilitates  the  business.  And  it  cannot 
easily  be  expressed,  nor  comprehended  by  any  who  have  not 
felt  the  weight  and  burden  of  the  envy,  which  naturally 
attends  upon  those  promotions,  which  seem  to  be  per  saltuni, 
how  great  straits  and  difficulties  such  ministers  are  forced 
to  wrestle  with  and  by  which  the  charges,  with  which  they 
are  entrusted,  must  proportionally  suffer,  let  the  integrity 
and  wisdom  of  the  men  be  what  it  can  be  supposed  to  be. 
Neither  is  the  patience,  temper,  and  dexterity,  to  carry  a 
man  through  those  straits,  easily  attained  :  it  being  very 
hard,  in  the  morning  of  preferment,  to  keep  an  even  temper 
of  mind,  between  the  care  to  preserve  the  dignity  of  the 
place  committed  to  him  (without  which  he  shall  expose 
himself  to  a  thousand  unchaste  attempts,  and  dishonour 
the  judgment  that  promoted  him,  by  appearing  too  vile  for 
such  a  trust)  and  the  caution  that  his  nature  be  not  really 
exalted  to  an  overweening  pride  and  folly,  upon  the  privilege 
of  the  place  ;  which  will  expose  him  to  much  more  contempt 
than  the  former,  and  therefore  is,  with  a  more  exact  guard 
upon  a  man's  self,  to  be  avoided,  the  errors  of  gentleness 
and  civility  being  much  more  easily  reformed,  as  well  as 
endured,  than  the  other  of  arrogance  and  ostentation." 

Hyde  adds  something  more,  which  was  clearly  the  fruit 
of  his  own  bitter  experience.  A  man's  best  protection, 
he  says,  in  such  a  position  is  "  an  expectation  of  those  gusts 

'  Rehellion,  vii.  282. 


1643]  HIS  FELLOW  COUNSELLORS  191 

and  storms  of  rumour,  detraction,  and  envy  ;  and  a  resolu- 
tion not  to  be  over-sensible  of  all  calumnies,  unkindness, 
or  injustice."  "  There  is  not,"  he  adds,  "  a  more  trouble- 
some passion,  or  that  often  draws  more  inconveniences 
with  it,  than  that  which  proceeds  from  the  indignation  of 
being  unjustly  calumniated,  and  from  the  pride  of  an  upright 
conscience,"  It  was  a  passion  from  which  Hyde,  in  his 
time,  was  to  suffer  much. 

Henceforward,  not  merely  as  unacknowledged  and 
confidential  adviser,  but  as  a  minister  of  the  King,  Sir 
Edward  Hyde  was  to  guide  the  counsels  of  the  Royalist 
party.  Others  were  to  conduct  the  mihtary  operations, 
to  organize  the  army,  to  decide  what  positions  should  be 
defended,  and  what  strategic  combinations  might  be 
attempted.  On  him  was  to  rest  the  chief  burden  of  devising 
schemes  for  obtaining  supphes,  of  directing  policy  according 
to  the  shifting  currents  of  popular  opinion,  and  of  countering 
and  parrying  the  thrusts  of  Parliamentary  argument,  and 
steering  his  way  in  the  thorny  paths  of  occasional  negotia- 
tion. Before  we  turn  to  these,  it  will  be  convenient  here, 
with  the  help  of  his  own  graphic  word  portraits,  to  glance 
at  the  character  and  personality  of  the  men  who,  by  virtue 
of  high  birth  and  rank,  held  the  foremost  place  in  the  Court 
of  the  King,  and  in  the  ranks  of  his  enemies,  and  to  learn 
something  of  the  motives  which  determined  their  choice  of 
sides. 

Amongst  those  who  gathered  about  the  King  there  were 
few  who  united  to  high  social  position,  or  to  marked  natural 
ability,  a  long  experience  in  pubhc  business.  Of  two  of  the 
group  of  counsellors,  Falkland  and  Colepepper,  we  have 
already  seen  a  good  deal,  and  shall  yet  see  more.  Colepepper 
owed  his  rise  to  ambition  and  long  years  of  labour ;  and 
Falkland,  although  he  stood  high  by  birth  and  fortune, 
did  not  count  amongst  the  outstanding  members  of  the 


192      HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  vin 

aristocracy  in  rank  and  wealth.  Littleton,  who  was  still 
Lord  Keeper,  had  preserved  his  fidelity  in  spite  of  some 
suspicions  ;  but  his  powers  were  never  brilHant,  and  they 
were  now  depressed  both  by  age  and  by  the  untoward 
circumstances  of  the  time.  He,  even  more  than  Colepepper, 
was  the  dependant,  rather  than  the  rival,  of  the  great  nobles, 
whose  power  and  influence  might  be  enhanced  by,  but  was 
by  no  means  based  upon,  any  favours  of  the  Crown.  It  is 
these  great  nobles  who  pass  across  the  pages  of  Clarendon's 
History,  in  the  lineaments  of  life. 

First  in  rank,  as  directly  descended  from  the  King's  own 
house,  stood  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Lennox.  Nature 
had  fitted  him  admirably  for  the  part  he  had  to  play  ;  and 
from  his  earhest  youth,  he  had  enjoyed  ample  opportunities 
for  acquiring  the  graces  of  the  courtier,  and  learning,  amongst 
the  grandees  of  Spain,  and  France  and  Italy,  aU  the  accom- 
plishments that  gave  the  distinction  common  to  each  of 
these  varying  groups.  When  scarcely  more  than  a  boy, 
he  had  become  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  his 
marriage  to  the  daughter  of  the  great  Duke  of  Buckingham 
not  only  enlarged  his  ample  heritage,  but  ensured  him  the 
close  friendship  of  the  King.  He  was  of  no  mood  to  dream 
of  party,  or  to  trouble  himself  with  the  political  dissensions 
of  the  day.  For  him  the  rights  of  the  people  did  not  exist. 
His  high  place,  and  his  personal  pride,  bound  him  to  the 
rules  of  honour,  and  in  that  code,  loyalty  to  the  Crown  stood 
in  the  highest  place.  Between  him  and  the  popular  party 
there  could  be  no  terms.  He  was  born  to  despise  them  ; 
and  to  them  he  was  the  very  type  of  all  that  they  were 
eager  to  destroy.  His  loyalty  was  no  matter  of  pohcy 
or  expediency,  nor  was  he  fitted  to  direct  the  counsels 
of  the  Crown  in  a  hazardous  time.  With  his  three  brothers, 
all  of  whom  lost  their  lives  in  the  service  of  their 
King,  it  was  not  a  matter   of   choice,    but   unquestioning 


1643]  RICHMOND:  HERTFORD:  SOUTHAMPTON  193 

religion,  to  devote  themselves  and  their  fortunes  to  his 
cause. 

With  regard  to  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  the  guardian  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  we  have  already  seen  how  little  his  past 
history,  or  his  own  tastes,  had  inchned  him  to  become  the 
active  supporter  of  the  King.  He  had  long  lived,  if  not 
estranged  from,  at  least  independent  of,  the  Court.  A 
scholar  who  loved  his  ease,  he  found  himself  better  suited 
for  the  position  of  a  great  territorial  magnate  than  of  a 
participant  in  the  favours  of  the  Crown.  But  for  him,  as 
for  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  there  could  be  no  terms  of  alliance 
with  the  popular  party.  No  favourer  of  Stratt'ord,  he  had 
nevertheless  held  aloof  from  the  measures  taken  against  him. 
His  influence  and  his  wealth  were  at  the  King's  disposal ; 
and  it  was  no  calculation,  but  the  promptings  of  instinctive 
sympathy,  that  made  him  throw  himself  with  ardour  unto 
the  levying  of  troops,  and  the  organization  of  military 
preparations,  for  the  Royahst  cause. 

The  Earl  of  Southampton  had  in  temperament  some 
similarity  with  Hertford.  Disdaining  some  of  the  con- 
ventional trappings  of  high  birth  and  position,  his  pride  made 
him  eschew  the  society  of  the  Court.  He  never  had  any 
conversation  with  it,  nor  owned  any  obligation  to  its  favour. 
A  tinge  of  melancholy  in  his  nature  made  him  inclined  to 
solitude.  His  well-known  aversion  to  the  Court,  and  his 
opposition  to  Strafford,  gave  some  hopes  of  an  alliance 
between  him  and  the  Parhamentary  leaders  ;  but  his  quick 
intelligence,  and  his  power  as  a  debater,  gave  him  an  influence 
which  deep-rooted  aversion  to  popular  changes  soon  made 
him  throw  into  the  support  of  the  Royahst  party.  He  sought 
eagerly  for  an  accommodation  which  might  stay  the  progress 
of  revolution ;  but  it  was  rather  from  dishke  of  the  new 
designs  than  from  any  purpose  of  mediating  between  King 
and  Parliament,   that  he  threw  himself  into  these  plans. 

VOL.    I.  O 


194       HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

Mutual  respect,  and  a  similarity  of  aim,  made  him,  now 
as  in  later  years,  the  warm  friend  and  associate  of  Hyde. 

Another,  and  a  very  different  type  of  man,  was  the  Earl  of 
Leicester.  A  soldier  in  his  early  manhood,  and  afterwards 
Ambassador  to  France  and  Denmark,  he  had  not  managed 
to  acquire  much  practical  aptitude  for  business.  His 
abilities  were  considerable,  but  they  were  those  of  a  bookish 
man  and  a  mathematician,  and  he  "  expected  a  greater 
certitude  in  the  consultation  of  business,  than  the  business 
of  this  world  is  capable  of."  In  this  verdict,  Hyde  indicates 
his  own  attitude  as  a  practical  statesman,  versed  in  the 
ways  of  men.  After  the  execution  of  Strafford,  Leicester 
was  appointed  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  ;  but  in  the  unhappy 
affairs  of  that  kingdom  he  played  but  little  part.  A  man 
of  honour  and  fidelity  to  the  King,  Hyde  believed  that 
"  his  greatest  misfortunes  proceeded  from  the  staggering 
and  irresolution  in  his  nature." 

The  outstanding  abilities,  and  long  experience  of  the 
Earl  of  Bristol,  have  already  been  recorded.  With  no 
attachment  to  the  Court,  he  had  at  first  taken  a  leading 
place  in  the  Parliamentary  party,  but  quickly  found  himself 
at  variance  with  their  designs,  and  was  one  of  the  earliest, 
on  getting  out  of  their  clutches,  to  join  the  King  at  York, 
and  was  present  at  Edgehill.  He  was  of  the  Council  at 
Oxford,  but  his  long  estrangement  from  the  Court,  and  his 
confidence  in  his  own  abilities  and  consequent  impatience 
of  contradiction,  detracted  from  his  weight.  His  lengthy 
discourses  and  his  passionate  temper  lessened  his  esteem  ; 
and  the  restless  and  ambitious  volatility  of  his  son.  Lord 
Digby,  led  to  an  estrangement  between  father  and  son, 
which  had  the  effect  of  still  more  impairing  the  respect  which 
Bristol's  age,  experience,  and  talents,  as  well  as  his  unselfish 
loyalty,  would  justly  have  commanded. 

In  the  north,  the  cause  of  the  Royalists  was  upheld  by 


1643]  BRISTOL   AND   NEWCASTLE  195 

the  Earl  of  Newcastle/  whose  lofty  courtesy  and  boundless 
generosity,  endowed  with  ample  resources  in  his  great  estate, 
were  well  fitted  to  attract  support  and  concihate  the  hearts 
of  those  who  joined  his  standard.    But  he  was  fitful  and 
wayward,  and  had  defects  that  weighed  down  his  better 
qualities.     He  was  without  any  pretence  to  military  skill 
or  knowledge.     The  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war  were 
what  attracted  him ;    but  his  defects  in  this  respect  were 
fairly  supplied  by  his  heutenant,  General  King,  a  shrewd 
and    experienced    Scottish    veteran.     Unfortunately    even 
King's  patience  was  often  tried  by  the  capricious  moods 
of  the  Earl,  who  had  in  no  small  degree  the  fanciful  preciosity 
of  the  preceding  generation.     He  was  "  amorous  of  poetry," 
and  often  when  action  was  needed  Hyde  tells  us  how  he 
"  retired  to  his  delightful  company,   music,   or  his  softer 
pleasures,  to  all  which  he  was  so  indulgent,  and  to  his  ease, 
that  he  would  not  be  interrupted  upon  what  occasion  what- 
ever."    We  can  imagine  with  what  temper  the  old  Scotch 
soldier  would  receive  such  fopperies,  and  how  irksome  they 
must  have  been  amid  the  hazards  of  the  time.     But,  as  not 
rarely  falls  out,  the  very  affectation  which  proved  the  self- 
indulgent  aristocrat,  playing  the  soldier,  did  not  prevent 
him  from  feeling  an  exaggerated  contempt  for  the  slow  pro- 
cesses of  the  Council  Chamber.     His  belated  foppery,  how- 
ever, was  never  allowed  to  lessen  the  honour  or  the  devotion 
of  his  chivalrous  loyalty,   until   the  impetuous   arrogance 
of  Prince  Rupert  broke  his  hopes  and  made  him  quit  the 
kingdom  in  despair. 

There  were  men  to  whom  birth  and  high  station,  rather 

1  William  Cavendish  had  inherited  large  estates  from  a  grandfather 
who  had  been  enriched  by  the  spoils  of  the  monasteries.  He  himself  received 
much  favour  as  a  courtier  :  was  created  Viscount  Mansfield  in  1620  ;  Earl 
of  Newcastle  in  1628  ;  Marquis  in  1643,  and  eventually  Duke  in  1665.  He 
was  tutor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  for  two  years  after  1638.  His  graces  are 
somewhat  fulsomely  described  in  the  Life  wTitton  by  the  Duchess,  whose 
account  seta  forth  most  amply  her  oM'n  and  her  husband's  virtues. 


196      HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

than  their  influence  or  abihties,  gave  some  prominence. 
The  Earl  of  Berkshire  had  been  captured  by  the  troops 
of  the  ParHament,  and  imprisoned  until  his  liberty  was 
granted  on  the  rather  contemptuous  ground,  that  he  was 
"  a  man  who  could  do  them  no  harm  anywhere ;  "  and  to 
whom  the  fact  of  that  imprisonment  secured  some  merit 
when  he  repaired  to  Oxford.  "  His  affection  for  the  Crown 
was  good ;  his  interest  and  reputation  less  than  anything 
but  his  understanding."  Lord  Dunsmore  was  another  who 
owed  any  esteem  rather  to  accident  than  to  character. 
He  was  "  of  a  rough  and  tempestuous  nature,"  lacking 
judgment  and  temper.  But  as  father-in-law  to  the  Earl 
of  Southampton,  he  had  a  borrowed  lustre  from  his  name. 

There  were  others  towards  whom  Hyde  felt  a  repugnance 
which  came  very  near  to  bitter  hatred.  Lord  Savile  had 
earned  rewards  from  the  Court,  which  seemed  out  of  all 
proportion  to  his  merits,  "of  an  ambitious  and  restless 
nature  ...  In  his  disposition  and  inclination  so  false 
that  he  never  could  be  believed  or  depended  upon."  His 
dominating  motive,  from  the  first,  had  been  malice  against 
Strafford,  and  under  the  influence  of  that  passion  he  had 
entered  into  close  relations  with  the  Scots — relations  which 
were  in  themselves  enough  to  secure  to  him  the  hostility  of 
Hyde.  By  a  forged  letter,  purporting  to  come  from  some  of 
the  English  nobility,  he  had  invited  the  Scots  into  England  ; 
and  it  was  only  when  he  found  his  credit  with  the  rebels 
less  than  he  had  hoped,  that  he  again  insinuated  himself 
into  the  favour  of  the  Queen,  and  with  her  help,  secured 
ill-earned  rewards  from  the  King.  He  remained  at  Oxford, 
despised  and  shunned  by  all  men  of  honour,  and  was,  in 
time,  detected  for  the  time-serving  traitor  that  he  was. 

No  negligible  part  was  played  by  honest  Secretary 
Nicholas,  whose  plodding  labours  and  unblemished  integrity 
won  him  a  credit  to  which  no  splendid    abilities  or  lofty 


1048]  PARLIAMENTARY   LEADERS  197 

ambition  attached  any  jealousy  in  a  circle  only  too  prone 
to  such  a  feeling.  His  virtue  and  fidelity  were  his  only 
recommendation ;  and  it  was  in  the  retrospect  of  long 
years  of  trusty  friendship  that  Hyde  recalls  him  as  "in 
truth,  throughout  his  whole  hfe,  a  person  of  very  good 
reputation  and  singular  integrity."  He  was  a  good  type  of 
the  well-tried  official  whose  long  experience  opened  to  him 
the  paths  of  statesmanship. 

But  the  men  of  great  birth,  high  rank,  and  vast  posses- 
sions were  not  to  be  found  amongst  the  Royalists  alone. 
Amongst  the  Parhamentarian  ranks,  the  foremost  in  splendour 
of  estate  was  the  Earl  of  Northumberland.  He  had  been 
the  recipient  of  countless  favours  from  the  Crown,  and  was 
chosen  by  Charles  as  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  greatest 
fleet  that  England  had  ever  launched.  No  man  of  the  age 
was  more  punctilious  in  demanding  all  the  deference  due  to 
his  great  station.  A  tyrant  in  his  own  family,  he  earned 
rather  by  a  specious  show  of  wisdom  than  by  any  sound 
foundation  of  real  ability,  the  reputation  of  a  wise  man. 
As  a  great  aristocrat,  he  despised  the  common  herd  of  men  ; 
but  he  forgot  also  the  respect  which  was  due  from  himself 
to  his  sovereign.  Such  ill-based  pride  as  his  was  above  all 
other  moods  that  most  amenable  to  the  assaults  of  flattery  ; 
and  his  support  of  the  popular  cause  arose  from  no  sincere 
desire  for  political  change,  but  from  the  petty  and  sadly 
mistaken  fancy  that  prompted  him  to  think  that  in  that 
crowd  his  own  supremacy  would  not  be  debated. 

The  Earl  of  Pembroke  was  the  second  of  those  brothers, 
to  whom  Shakespeare's  notice  has  brought  immortality. 
But  he  had  more  than  his  brother's  prodigal  excess,  and  much 
less  than  his  skill  in  attracting  popularity.  His  lavish 
extravagance,  his  vast  possessions,  his  rather  ostentatious 
patronage,  won  for  him  a  certain  appearance  of  influence, 
which  he  strove  to  increase  by  rather  unctuous  protestations 


198       HYDE  IN  THE  COUET  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

of  his  sympathy  with  the  prevaiHng  rehgious  views — a 
sympathy  which,  from  people  of  his  stamp,  seems  always 
to  have  been  accepted  with  but  scanty  discrimination. 
When  Laud,  from  his  prison  house,  resigned  the  Chancellor- 
ship of  Oxford,  those  who  favoured  the  Parliament  had 
procured  Pembroke's  election  in  his  place.  When  the  Court 
once  more  gave  to  the  University  a  period  of  freedom,  he 
was  excluded  from  the  office,  and  Lord  Herbert  was  elected 
in  his  place.  The  triumph  of  the  popular  cause  made 
Pembroke  once  more  the  Chancellor  of  a  University  in 
thraldom  to  an  intolerant  and  unsympathetic  sectarianism. 
To  such  a  man,  the  very  type  of  the  most  arrogant  pretensions 
of  aristocracy,  and  of  its  most  insolent  display  of  luxury, 
the  aims  of  the  popular  party  had  little  hkely  to  attract  him* 
But  when  he  discerned  the  current  of  anti-monarchical 
feeling,  "  his  fear,  which  was  the  passion  always  predominant 
in  him  above  all  his  choler  and  his  rage,  prevailed  so  far 
over  him,  that  he  gave  himself  up  into  the  hands  of  Lord 
Say,  to  dispose  of  him  as  he  thought  fit."  Henceforward 
he  was  a  despised  tool  in  the  hands  of  abler  masters.  When 
a  Militia  Ordinance  had  to  be  executed,  "  they  sent  him  into 
the  country  and  showed  him  to  the  people,  under  the  conduct 
of  two  or  three  members  of  the  House,  in  whom  they  could 
confide."  He  talked  as  he  was  bid,  and  repeated  the  stock 
phrases  about  malignant  and  scandalous  ministers.  Hyde 
retained  a  lingering  kindness  for  the  poor  wretch  even  in 
his  fallen  estate ;  and  speaks,  with  no  excess  of  contempt, 
of  the  guiding  principle  of  his  policy,  as  centred  in  the  desire 
that  he  should  still  be  master  of  Wilton  and  its  treasures. 

The  Earl  of  Essex  was  a  man  of  far  other  type ;  and 
Hyde  at  more  than  one  critical  juncture  regretted  the  fatal 
errors  on  the  part  of  the  Court,  that  had  brought  about  the 
alienation  of  such  a  statesman.  No  man  had  a  higher 
sense  of  honour,  no  man  abhorred  rebellion  more,  and  no 


1643]  NOETHUMBERLAND  :  ESSEX:  WARWICK   199 

man  more  despised  any  crooked  or  tortuous  course.  His 
very  absence  of  ambition  made  his  pride  the  greater,  and  he 
was  gradually  drawn  into  a  position  ahen  to  his  nature 
and  in  direct  opposition  to  all  his  interests,  because  he  fancied 
that  he  could  guide  the  course  of  events,  and  was  attracted 
by  the  notion  of  giving  a  favour  to,  rather  than  receiving  it 
from,  those  whom  he  accepted  as  his  alhes.  Once  embarked 
upon  a  certain  course,  Essex  would  change  by  no  device 
of  stratagem  or  treachery,  but  only  upon  sound  reasons 
which  could  be  published  to  the  world.  Over  and  over 
again  the  King's  advisers,  much  to  Hyde's  disgust,  allowed 
chances  of  gaining  the  support  of  Essex  to  slip  by. 

For  Lord  Sahsbury,  Hyde  has  a  contempt  which  is  only 
intensified  by  the  glamour  which  his  ancestors  and  their 
great  achievements  threw  around  him.  The  petty  tyrant 
in  his  own  domain  and  within  his  own  sphere  of  influence, 
he  was  swayed  in  Council  by  every  current  of  the  prevailing 
humour.  A  sudden  access  of  loyalty  would  be  followed 
by  the  promptings  of  fear,  and  the  craven  desire  of  saving 
himself  and  preserving  Hatfield.  Under  the  strained 
administration  of  the  Forest  laws,  he  had  suffered  a 
heavy  fine  levied  upon  the  vast  estates  granted  to  his 
predecessors ;  and  that  grudge  he  never  allowed  to  go  to 
sleep.  His  vacillation  ended  by  unquestioning  submission 
to  the  orders  of  the  Parhamentary  leaders,  and  he  was  at 
last  one  of  the  few  members  of  that  old  and  proud 
aristocracy  who  accepted  the  degradation  of  a  seat  in 
Cromwell's  mock  House  of  Lords. 

The  Earl  of  Warwick  was  Holland's  elder  brother,  and 
partook  with  him  of  that  descent  of  doubtful  credit  both  on 
his  father's  and  his  mother's  side  which  was  a  byword 
amongst  the  aristocratic  scandals  of  the  day.  "  He  was  a 
man  of  a  pleasant  companionable  wit  and  conversation  ;  of 
an  universal  jolHty  ;  and  such  a  licence  in  his  words,  and  in 


200      HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

his  actions,  that  a  man  of  less  virtue  could  not  be  found." 
But,  with  their  usual  complacence,  the  dissenting  ministers 
did  not  suffer  their  puritanism  to  bar  against  them  the 
hospitable  doors  of  one  who  "  spent  a  good  part  of  his  estate, 
of  which  he  was  very  prodigal,  upon  them,  and  by  being 
present  with  them  at  their  devotions,  and  making  himself 
merry  with  them,  and  at  them,  which  they  dispensed  with," 
so  that  "  he  became  the  head  of  their  party,  and  got  the 
style  of  a  pious  man."  He  played  his  cards  well,  turned  his 
patriotic  zeal  to  good  account  in  repairing  the  breaches 
which  his  extravagance  had  made  in  his  estate  ;  and  did  not 
allow  his  aristocratic  pride  to  refuse  the  daughter  of  Crom- 
well as  a  wife  to  his  grandson  and  heir.  He  died  before  the 
tyranny  which  he  had  helped  to  place  upon  his  country 
had  fallen  before  the  anger  of  the  people  whom  he  had 
misled. 

It  was  partly  due  to  Warwick's  influence  that  a  far 
betterand  more  honest  man  was  led  to  a  course  which  brought 
him  little  comfort,  and  which  he  lived  to  repent.  This 
was  the  Earl  of  Manchester.  "  Of  a  gentle  and  a  generous 
nature  ;  "  one  "  who  loved  his  country  with  too  unskilful 
a  tenderness  ;  of  so  excellent  a  temper  and  disposition,  that 
the  barbarous  times,  and  the  rough  parts  he  was  forced  to 
act  in  them,  did  not  wipe  out  or  much  deface  these  marks  " — 
Manchester  was  diverted  into  the  popular  alliance,  partly 
by  the  neglect  of  the  Court,  partly  by  his  marriage  to 
Warwick's  daughter,  and  partly  "  by  the  bewitching  popu- 
larity, which  flowed  upon  him  with  a  wonderful  torrent." 
To  the  fatal  error  by  which  his  name,  as  Lord  Kimbolton, 
was  included  amongst  those  at  whom  Charles  aimed  the 
misguided  blow  of  that  rash  impeachment,  which  vexed 
the  souls  of  Hyde  and  Falkland,  must  be  ascribed  the 
alienation  of  a  possible  adherent,  who  might  have  brought 
to  the  King  the  rare  benefit  of  an  honest,  a  straightforward. 


1G43]  MANCHESTER  AND   SAY  201 

and  an  unselfish  loyalty,  and  who,  as  it  was,  not  unnaturally 
suspected  a  prerogative  from  which  he  and  his  father  had 
alike  suffered  wrong. 

Lord  Say  was  another  of  those  whose  birth  and  position 
would  naturally  have  led  them  to  belong  to  the  party  of  the 
Court,  but  who,  after  some  wavering,  were  found  amongst 
the  numbers  of  its  enemies.  It  would  not  be  fair  always  to 
accept  the  account  of  the  conversion  of  such  men  from 
those  who,  like  Hyde,  considered  them  as  false  at  once 
to  their  order  and  to  their  sovereign,  and  who  must 
consequently  find  some  more  or  less  discreditable  motive 
for  their  action.  But  the  pen  with  which  Hyde  draws 
the  portrait  of  Lord  Say  is  charged  with  an  unusual 
amount  of  gall ;  and  he  did  not  stand  alone  in  thinking 
him  capable  of  a  treachery  deeper  even  than  that  which 
passed  current  in  an  age  when  the  standard  of  political 
fidelity  was  by  no  means  high. 

Lord  Say  attempted  to  fill  the  difficult  position  of  a  wit 
amongst  the  aristocrats,  and  an  aristocrat  amongst  the  wits. 
It  is  a  role  which  rarely  attracts  regard,  and  very  frequently 
forfeits  even  respect.  Of  old  lineage,  Say  found  it  convenient 
to  establish  his  claim  to  be  of  Founder's  kin  at  New  College, 
and  therefore  entitled  to  a  fellowship  on  the  foundation, 
by  concocting  for  himself  a  pedigree  so  lengthy  as  to  give 
rise  to  ridicule.  His  college  connection  led  him  to  converse 
with  books  more  than  with  men,  and  did  not  cure — perhaps 
it  even  increased — the  natural  pride  and  moroseness  of 
his  temper.  On  the  one  hand,  *'  no  man  valued  himself 
more  upon  his  title  ;  "  on  the  other  hand,  "  although  his 
own  parts  were  not  quick,  they  were  so  much  above  those 
of  his  own  rank,  that  he  had  always  great  credit  and  authority 
in  Parliament."  He  had  one  quality,  of  which  it  may  be 
feared  that  Hyde  was  not  an  impartial  critic — "  he  had, 
with  his  milk,  sucked  in  an  implacable  malice  against  the 


202       HYDE  IN  THE  COUET  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

Government  of  the  Church."  It  would  be  unfair  to  condemn 
on  such  an  arraignment ;  but  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  verdict  to  be  passed  upon  the  crime  of  non-conformity 
can  affect  the  contempt  which  Say  earned  by  repeated 
tergiversation.  His  submissiveness  earned  for  him  the 
patronage  of  Buckingham,  until  it  was  lost  by  his  pedantic 
self-sufficiency.  He  had  sought  for  preferment  at  Court,  with 
the  sullen  obstinacy  of  one  who  had  lived  in  the  contracted 
life  of  the  college,  and  with  the  greed  of  a  man  whose 
means  were  not  equal  to  his  rank  ;  and  unsatisfied  ambition 
was  supposed  to  have  given  him  the  first  suggestion  of  popular 
sympathies.  But  he  had  expected  to  rule  where  his  new 
allies  would  permit  him  only  to  follow.  His  efforts  to  stay 
the  torrent  he  had  let  loose  were  vain ;  and  in  the  end  he 
won  only  the  contempt  of  both  parties  in  the  State. 

Last  of  those  who,  under  the  strain  of  circumstance 
or  the  impulse  of  resentment,  quitted  the  service  of  the 
Court  for  that  of  Parliament,  was  the  elder  Sir  Henry  Vane. 
With__all  the  boisterous  ambition  of  his  son,  he  had  neither 
his  quickness  of  intellect  nor  his  erratic  and  visionary 
promptings  ;  but  even  with  his  slower  and  less  cultivated 
faculties,  he  managed  to  make  himself  the  centre  of  almost 
as  many  embroilments.  Whatever  charges  can  be  brought 
against  either  father  or  son,  they  cannot  be  accused  of 
assiduous  courting  of  the  great.  With  Buckingham,  as  with 
Strafford,  Vane  was  in  constant  feud ;  and  the  turbulence 
of  his  nature  made  him,  in  the  latter  case,  carry  that  feud  to 
discreditable  lengths,  in  the  scene,  already  referred  to,  where 
his  son  produced,  and  he  himself  admitted  as  authentic,  the 
doubtful  and  unsupported  evidence  of  his  own  confidential 
papers.  Deprived  of  the  Court  appointment  which  his 
energy  and  industry,  rather  than  his  talents,  had  won  for 
him,  he  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  opposition.  There 
he  earned  little  credit.     There  was  no  more  conspicuous 


1643]         SIR    HENRY    VANE    THE    ELDER  203 

example  of  the  influence  of  civil  feuds  in  engendering  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  between  father  and  son,  typified  also  by  the 
cases  of  Bristol  and  Digby,  and  of  the  two  Hothams,  and 
easily  accounted  for  by  the  many  cross  currents  that  pre- 
vailed in  that  stormy  political  vortex. 

Such  were  some  of  the  chief  actors  in  this  first  scene  of 
the  Civil  War,  and  during  these  winter  months  at  Oxford 
that  scene  witnessed  many  rapid  developments.  On  the 
whole,  the  prospects  of  the  Royalist  party  quickly  improved. 
Although  the  regular  machinery  for  raising  money  had  been 
broken  up,  and  the  wealth  of  the  capital  was  tapped  entirely 
by  Parhament,  the  supplies  for  the  Kmg's  army  came  in 
with  a  regularity  surprising  in  the  circumstances.  The  pay 
of  his  troops  amounted  to  £3000  a  week,  and  it  was  paid 
promptly  enough.  The  levying  of  tonnage  and  poundage 
was  continued  by  Parhament,  although  the  legal  authority 
for  it  had  expired  ;  and  undoubtedly  the  King's  proclama- 
tion demanding  the  payment  of  these  dues  had  better  legal 
foundation  than  the  action  of  the  Parliament.  Still  less 
show  of  legal  ground  was  there  for  the  further  levying  of  a 
new  tax  in  the  shape  of  one-twentieth  of  each  man's  goods, 
assessed  by  officers  nominated  on  Parhamentary  authority 
alone,  and  enforced  by  penalties  unknown  hitherto  to  the 
law.  Each  side  attempted  to  create  an  interest  for  itself 
abroad ;  and  by  a  policy  which  Hyde  stigmatizes  as  not 
only  immoral,  but  strangely  short-sighted,  the  monarchical 
powers  of  the  Continent  found  an  opportunity  for  diminishing 
the  power  of  England,  by  encouraging  the  growth  of  the 
civil  dissension,  and  by  stimulating  the  Parliamentary 
opposition  to  the  King.  Petitions  from  different  sections  of 
the  people  of  London,  urging  their  grievances,  poured  in 
upon  Parliament ;  they  had  now  secured  a  Common  Council 
entirely  subservient  to  their  interests,  and  in  January,  164i], 
they  obtained  from  it  a  petition  to  the  King,  protesting  their 


204      HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  vm 

own  loyalty,  and  begging  him  to  return  to  his  capital,  and 
there  to  consider,  with  his  Parliament,  the  grievances  under 
which  they  laboured.  In  reply  the  King  assured  them  that 
he  entertained  no  doubt  of  the  loyalty  of  his  city ;  but  he 
besought  them  to  consider  what  hope  of  personal  safety  he 
could  entertain  amid  those  who  had  thwarted  his  authority, 
and  opposed  him  in  arms ;  what  benefit  could  accrue  to  the 
Protestant  religion  from  persistent  reviling  of  the  doctrine 
and  usages  of  the  reformed  Church  ;  and  what  guarantee 
for  legal  action  there  was  from  those  who  without  any 
precedent,  extorted  their  property  from  the  citizens  in 
defiance  of  the  law.  His  concurrence  in  any  plan  for  the 
removal  of  real  grievances  was,  he  said,  sufficiently  attested 
by  his  previous  concessions  to  the  Parhamentary  demands  ; 
and  his  only  condition  preliminary  to  an  accommodation 
was  an  assurance  that  the  forms  of  law  would  be  respected. 
It  was  one  of  Hyde's  most  effective  pronouncements.  It  was 
proposed  to  submit  it  to  a  "  common  hall,"  or  assemblage 
of  the  citizens.  But  the  experiment  might  have  been  a 
dangerous  one  ;  and  the  Parliament  intervened  to  prevent  it. 
While  declarations  and  addresses  followed  each  other 
in  brisk  succession,  it  is  difficult  to  say  with  which  party  the 
success  chiefly  lay  during  those  winter  months.  If  Sir 
William  Waller  seized  Chichester,  and  discomfited  the  hope 
of  the  Royalists  in  Sussex,  the  success  of  Prince  Rupert  in 
capturing  Cirencester  raised  the  King's  influence  in  the  west ; 
while  in  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  Sir  Bevil  Grenvil,  the 
most  honoured  gentleman  of  those  parts,  and  Sir  Ralph 
Hopton — that  chivalrous  soldier,  whose  unblemished  honour 
survived  through  all  these  troublous  times,  without  taint 
or  suspicion — made  spirited  advances,  and  at  length  inflicted 
a  notable  defeat  upon  the  Parliamentary  forces  at  Bradock 
Down.  In  many  parts  of  the  country,  where  hopes  were 
still  entertained  that  the  fury  of  civil  war  would  soon  be 


1643]  RETURN   OF  THE   QUEEN  205 

appeased,  there  was  a  disposition  to  remain  quiescent  and 
await  events  ;  and  Hyde  gives  it  as  his  firm  conviction  that 
this  general  behef  of  the  short  duration  of  the  war  was, 
more  than  anything  else,  the  cause  of  its  long  continuance. 
Each  party  saw  only  a  small  portion  of  the  general  scene  ; 
and  confidence  in  the  accessions  of  power  which  they  received, 
made  them  believe  that  they  had  only  to  show  a  little  patience, 
and  that  their  foes  would  be  compelled  to  yield. 

It  was  in  February  that  the  Queen  landed  at  Bridlington 
Quay,  in  Yorkshire,  bringing  with  her  a  good  supply  of  arms 
and  ammunition,  which  strengthened  the  King's  cause  in 
these  parts.  In  the  Midlands  the  balance  of  success  lay 
with  the  Parliamentary  forces  ;  and  although  Lord  Herbert 
made  a  spirited  effort  about  Worcestershire  and  the  Welsh 
borders,  Sir  William  Waller,  whose  vigour  in  the  early  part 
of  the  war  won  for  him  the  title  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
more  than  balanced  his  influence  by  a  sweeping  movement  in 
which  some  of  the  strongest  fortified  places  fell  into  his 
hands.  Beyond  all  their  successes  in  the  field,  the  Parhament 
had  at  their  hand  a  still  more  advantageous  opportunity 
of  discrediting  the  cause  of  the  King,  by  representing  that 
the  long-drawn-out  rebellion  in  Ireland  was  due  to  his  secret 
sympathy  with  Roman  Catholic  rebels  there,  and  that 
plots  were  afoot  for  drawing  them  over  to  assist  in  the 
subjugation  of  England. 

The  King  had  some  time  before  made  proposals  for  a 
cessation  of  arms,  preliminary  to  a  treaty  of  accommodation, 
and  he  now  pressed  the  Parliament  for  a  reply.  This  gave 
new  influence  to  that  party  in  Parliament  that  were  not 
inclined  to  push  matters  to  extremity,  and  in  the  beginning 
of  March  their  proposals  for  an  armistice  were  submitted 
to  the  King.  But  it  gave  no  indication  of  the  sincerity  of 
those  proposals  that,  at  the  very  time,  they  imposed  upon 
London  and  the  rest  of  the  country  an  assessment  of  the 


206       HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

unprecedented  amount  of  forty-three  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds  a  week,  or  two  milHon  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
in  the  year.  Such  was  the  remedy  propounded  by  ParHa- 
ment  for  the  intolerable  taxation  endured  under  Royal 
prerogative !  At  the  same  time,  as  if  to  accentuate  their 
determination  that  no  cessation  of  arms  should  imply  any 
diminution  in  their  demands,  they  were  pressing  for  the 
King's  assent  to  the  complete  extirpation  of  episcopacy, 
and  their  demand  was  backed  by  a  deputation  which  reached 
Oxford  from  the  Scottish  General  Assembly,  in  order  to 
urge  upon  the  kingdom  the  adoption  for  both  countries 
of  the  Presbyterian  model,  as  the  only  means  whereby 
the  insidious  onslaughts  of  Papacy  might  be  averted.  It 
did  not  render  the  presumption  of  this  address  the  less 
intolerable,  nor  its  insinuations  the  less  dangerous,  that  it 
was  accompanied  by  a  specious  pretence  of  unswerving 
loyalty  to  his  person,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  increase  his 
prosperity  and  the  dignity  of  his  crown.  The  mediation 
was  declined,  in  words  of  which  the  dignified  courtesy 
and  tone  of  studied  moderation  scantily  concealed  the 
sarcastic  treatment  which  such  arrogance  deserved. 

The  Commissioners  to  treat  for  the  cessation  arrived  at 
Oxford  early  in  March.  Amongst  them  was  Whitelocke, 
the  early  friend  of  Hyde,  and  between  the  two  some  inter- 
course, on  something  like  the  old  terms,  was  renewed. 
The  negotiations  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  about  the 
terms  on  which  peace  might  ultimately  be  secured,  made  little 
progress.  The  continued  levying  of  taxes  by  Parliament, 
without  any  legal  foundation,  which  was,  in  fact,  an  active 
preparation  for  war,  was  one  of  the  chief  ostensible  causes 
for  breaking  off  the  negotiations,  and  the  return  of  the 
Commissioners  before  the  end  of  the  month.  But  in  truth 
there  were  other  and  very  different  negotiations  on  foot. 
At  the  head  of  the  Commissioners  was  Northumberland, 


1643]  NEGOTIATIONS   AT   OXFORD  207 

and  he  had  ah'eady  reason  enough  to  dread  the  evident 
consequences  of  complete  Parliamentary  success.  It  was 
represented  to  Hyde  that  the  question  of  extirpating  episco- 
pacy was  one  on  which  the  majority  in  Parhament  might 
be  disposed  to  come  to  some  accommodation.  The  Militia 
question  presented  more  difficulty  ;  but  even  for  that  a 
temporary  arrangement  might  be  made.  Above  all,  a 
personal  question  emerged  ;  and  on  that  Hyde  was  anxious 
that  some  concihation  should  be  shown.  Northumberland 
was  ready  to  accept  the  office  of  Lord  High  Admiral  for  the 
King.  He  was  ready  to  malie  terms  with  the  Court ;  and 
so  far  as  his  proud  nature  would  admit,  he  showed  himself 
disposed  to  accept  with  gratitude  any  favour  from  the  King, 
and  to  repay  the  obhvion  of  his  past  errors  by  assisting 
to  restore  much  at  least  of  the  royal  authority.  But  Hyde 
found  a  strange  reluctance  on  the  part  of  the  King  to  accept 
the  advice  which  he  urged  with  the  freedom  of  true  loyalty. 
Addresses  were  presented  to  the  King  from  some  who  were 
his  most  trusted  supporters,  representing  the  ill  consequence 
of  any  premature  cessation,  which  would  thwart  their  own 
efforts  and  hinder  their  preparations,  while  leaving  the 
hands  of  the  Parliament  free.  Hyde  suspected  the  origin 
of  these  addresses  ;  and  found  he  was  not  mistaken  in 
thinking  that  they  were  in  fact  suggested  by  the  King  himself, 
in  order  to  support  his  own  obstinate  refusal  of  the  terms. 
Hyde  made  bold  to  tell  him  that  he  had  raised  a  spirit  that 
he  would  not  be  able  to  conjure  down  ;  and  the  event  proved 
that  such  advice  once  received  was  apt  to  breed  a  crop  of 
self-appointed  counsellors,  whose  discontent  grew  as  their 
spontaneous,  and  often  diverse,  proposals  were  rejected. 
Charles  urged,  with  a  bitterness  of  animosity  that  was 
aUen  to  his  nature,  that  the  ingratitude  of  Northumber- 
land was  too  great  to  be  condoned.  Driven,  in  his 
embarrassment,  to   inconsistent   arguments,  he  affected   to 


208      HYDE  IN  THE  COUET  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

slight  Northumberland's  influence ;  and  again  he  varied 
his  position  by  offering  to  entertain  the  proposal  at  some 
future  time.  Behind  the  whole  there  was,  as  Hyde  soon 
perceived,  another  and  more  potent  influence.  When  the 
Queen  had  left  England  in  the  autumn,  she  had  extorted 
a  promise  from  the  King  that  no  appointment  would  be 
made  without  her  knowledge  and  consent ;  and  in  words 
of  studied  respect,  but  at  the  same  time  of  deep-rooted 
condemnation,  he  records  his  impression  of  their  fatal 
influence  upon  his  master. 

"  The  King's  affection,"  he  says,  "  to  the  Queen  was  of 
a  very  extraordinary  alloy  ;  a  composition  of  conscience, 
and  love,  and  generosity,  and  gratitude,  and  all  those  noble 
affections  which  raise  passion  to  the  greatest  height ;  inso- 
much as  he  saw  with  her  eyes,  and  determined  by  her  judg- 
ment ;  and  did  not  only  pay  her  this  adoration,  but  desired 
that  all  men  should  know  that  he  was  swayed  by  her,  which 
was  not  good  for  either  of  them.  The  Queen  was  a  lady 
of  great  beauty,  excellent  wit  and  humour,  and  made  him  a 
just  return  of  noblest  affections  ;  so  that  they  were  the  true 
idea  of  conjugal  affection,  in  the  age  in  which  they  lived. 
When  she  was  admitted  to  the  knowledge  and  participation 
of  the  most  secret  affairs  (from  which  she  had  been  carefully 
restrained  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  whilst  he  lived), 
she  took  delight  in  the  examining  and  discussing  them,  and 
from  thence  in  making  judgment  of  them,  in  which  her 
passions  were  always  strong." 

The  promise  he  had  made  to  her  the  King  kept  with 
fatal  fidelity.  "  This  promise  (of  which  his  Majesty  was  too 
religious  an  observer)  was  the  cause  of  his  rejection,  or  not 
entertaining,  this  last  overture ;  and  this  was  the  reason  he 
had  that  aversion  to  the  cessation."  The  Queen  was  now 
in  Yorkshire,  and  wrote  strongly  against  the  treaty.  The 
King  would  gladly  have  prolonged  it  until  she  came  to  Oxford, 
when  he  hoped  to  change  her  views.     But  the  fatal  decision 


1643]  THE   ARMY   AND   THE   COUNCIL  209 

was  made,  and  a  chance  was  lost  which  Hyde  never  ceased 
to  think  was  the  most  favourable  ever  likely  to  occur.  He 
had  the  less  important  satisfaction  of  finding  his  advice 
prevail  in  regard  to  the  answer  to  the  Scotch  General 
Assembly.  The  King  had  desired  to  show  his  zeal  for  the 
Church  by  a  reasoned  reply — in  which  perhaps  he  showed 
that  he  inherited  some  of  his  father's  taste  for  theological 
discussion.  Falkland  would  have  had  the  reply  confined 
to  a  simple  negative.  Hyde  gained  the  day  for  the  reply 
that  was  actually  sent,  which  rejected  the  overture  as  the 
act  of  egregious  presumption  that  it  was. 

In  the  field  some  successes  continued  to  attend  the 
arms  of  the  King ;  but  they  were  marred  by  the  growing 
dissensions  between  the  army  officers  and  the  Council. 
The  military  party  deemed  that  the  hopes  of  the  Crown  lay 
only  in  their  sword-arm,  and  in  the  boisterous  courage  of  their 
troopers,  who  loved  the  freedom  and  excitement  of  the  camp, 
and  promised  themselves  ample  reward  when  the  work 
should  be  done.  For  them  the  niceties  of  legal  discussion 
and  constitutional  principles  had  no  attraction.  They  recked 
little  of  the  difference  between  Bishop  and  Presbytery,  and 
to  them  it  was  only  a  matter  about  which  orthodox  opinions 
had  to  be  battered  into  the  thick  skulls  of  the  Roundheads, 
who  must  be  taught  that  reverence  for  the  lawn  sleeves  was 
part  of  the  religion  of  a  gentleman.  They  were  impatient 
of  the  chicanery  of  pohtical  arguments,  and  thought  little 
of  the  pursuit  of  any  fixed  course  of  pohcy  by  a  body  of 
unwarlike  statesmen,  managing  affairs  from  their  safe  retreat 
at  Oxford.  The  time,  they  deemed,  was  past  for  the  pohtician, 
and  the  fortunes  of  the  nation  were  to  be  settled  only  on  the 
stricken  field. 

Meanwhile  the  tides  of  victory  and  disaster  swept  back- 
wards and  forwards  with  bewildering  variety.  If  the 
movements  are  puzzling  to  us,  they  were  still  more  so  to 

VOL.   I.  p 


210       HYDE  IN  THE  COUET  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

those  who  attempted  to  follow  the  diverse  reports  that 
reached  them  from  day  to  day  from  different  parts  of  the 
comitry.  If  Newcastle  had  a  passing  triumph  over  Fairfax 
in  the  north,  it  was  balanced  by  the  nimble  marches  in  which 
Waller  swept  westwards  to  Hereford.  Prince  Rupert 
continued  his  impetuous  career,  and  earned  a  dearly  bought 
victory  in  the  capture  of  Bristol ;  but  Essex  made  a  victorious 
progress  from  the  capital,  with  an  army  re-equipped  and 
strengthened,  and  seizing  on  Reading,  established  a  post  in 
dangerous  proximity  to  the  King's  quarters  at  Oxford. 
A  symptom  of  ill-omen  for  the  cause  was  the  loudly  uttered 
complaint  that  Reading  had  been  surrendered  by  the 
treachery  of  Colonel  Fielding.  He  demanded  a  court-martial, 
but,  in  spite  of  a  good  defence,  he  was  convicted  of  treachery 
and  sentenced  to  death.  The  sentence  was  remitted,  and 
he  lived  to  do  good  service  to  the  King.  But  the  affair 
started  the  pernicious  seed  of  miHtary  dissension,  and  of 
cabals  in  the  army  which  were  yet  to  work  still  greater 
mischief.  The  natural  result  of  these  dissensions  was  that 
the  frame  of  discipline  was  broken,  and  that  the  common 
soldiers  imitated  the  licence  and  turbulence  of  their  officers. 
The  good  relations  with  the  people,  amidst  whom  they  were 
quartered,  were  no  longer  maintained.  Instead  of  restraint 
and  fair  dealing,  there  arose  riot  and  plunder ;  and  the 
charges  which  had  at  first  been  brought  against  the  hastily 
raised  levies  of  the  Parliament  were  now  raised  with  even 
better  reason  against  many  bodies  of  the  Royahsts.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  discipline  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  advanced, 
the  standard  of  that  prevailing  amongst  the  King's  troops 
was  lowered.  "  In  so  much,"  to  use  the  words  of  Hyde,i 
"  as  one  side  seemed  to  fight  for  Monarchy  with  the  weapons 
of  confusion,  and  the  other  to  destroy  the  King  and  Govern- 
ment with  all  the  principles  and  regularity  of  Monarchy." 

•  Bebellion,  vii.  276. 


1643]      DIFFICULTY  WITH   PEINCE   EUPERT       211 

These  quarrels  amongst  the  military  commanders  had 
appeared  in  a  still  more  serious  form  in  Bristol,  where  the 
uncurbed  arrogance  of  Prince  Rupert  had  led  to  serious 
disputes  with  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  the  most  respected 
of  the  King's  adherents,  with  whose  complaints  against 
the  King's  nephew  the  other  members  of  the  aristocratic 
party  made  common  cause.  So  heated  had  these  discussions 
become,  and  so  evident  was  their  danger  to  the  cause,  that 
the  King  resolved  himself  to  repair  to  Bristol,  in  order  to 
appease  them.  He  took  with  him  Hyde,  Falkland,  and 
Colepepper.  The  strife  was  allayed  rather  than  settled  ; 
the  King  had  not  yet  awakened  from  that  fatal  partiality 
to  his  nephew  which  was  to  work  such  dire  mischief  before 
the  end. 

At  Bristol  Hyde  himself  found  reason  to  complain  of 
an  infringement  of  his  own  proper  official  functions.  The 
chief  advantage  of  the  possession  of  Bristol  was  that  it  gave 
the  King  a  hold  upon  the  great  trading  centre  of  the  west, 
and  promised,  in  the  customs  and  duties,  a  sure  source  of 
financial  supply,  which,  if  well  managed,  was  of  untold 
value.  But  Hyde  found  that  his  influence  there  was  thwarted 
by  a  grant  of  authority  from  the  King  to  Ashburnham  ' 

>  John  Ashburnham,  born  in  1603,  was  connected  through  his  mother 
with  the  great  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  so  secured  his  patronage.  In  1628, 
he  became  Groom  of  the  Bed-chamber,  and,  as  such,  not  only  managed  to 
enrich  himself,  but  to  earn  the  entire  confidence  of  the  King.  He  sat  in 
the  Long  Parliament,  but  withdrew  from  it  to  attend  the  King,  and  was 
formally  expelled.  For  a  time  he  had  to  fly  to  Holland,  but  returned  later, 
and  was  with  the  Bang  at  Hampton  Court.  The  blunder  by  which  he 
and  Sir  John  Berkeley  betrayed  the  presence  of  Charles  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
to  Colonel  Hammond,  the  Governor,  whom  he  fancied  on  no  sufficient 
grounds  to  be  well-affected,  made  him  an  object  of  suspicion,  but  he  never 
lost  the  trust  of  the  King.  He  suffered  much  under  the  Commonwealth, 
and  was  once  more  Groom  of  the  Bed-chamber  after  the  Restoration.  He 
died  in  1671.  Hyde  was  never  on  cordial  terms  with  him.  He  was  a  man 
of  stately  presence  and  graceful  manners,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  of 
sincere  loyalty.  It  has  been  his  misfortune  to  have  his  memory  defended, 
in  a  very  foolish  book,  by  "  his  lineal  descendant,"  in  1830.  His  indiscretion 
in  critical  circumstances  brought  about  disasters.  But,  except  for  his 
descendant's  silly  defence,  no  one  would  visit  hardly  such  an  error  in  a 
Groom  of  the  Bed-chamber. 


212       HYDE  IN  THE  COURT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

and  Colepepper,  to  deal  with  the  Bristol  revenue.  He  found 
it  necessary  to  expostulate  with  his  colleagues,  and  to 
complain  to  the  King  ;  and  the  complaint  was  repeated 
with  still  more  urgency  by  his  friend  Falkland,  who  made 
all  Hyde's  grievances  his  own.  He  received  explanations 
and  apologies  ;  but  personal  satisfaction  did  not  remove 
the  source  of  a  new  mischief  which  sprang  from  such 
private  applications  too  readily  admitted  by  the  King. 
Ashburnham's  training  at  Court  had  taught  him  the  habit 
of  annexing  perquisites. 

As  the  currents  of  victory  and  defeat  passed  backwards 
and  forwards,  each  side  felt  a  new  confidence  in  their  own 
military  strength,  and  they  were  the  less  disposed  to  listen 
to  a  compromise  ;  and  on  both  sides  tempers  were  aroused 
by  losses  which  they  longed  to  avenge.  Amidst  the  Cornish 
successes  the  King  had  lost,  in  an  obscure  skirmish  at 
Chagford,  a  young  adherent  of  singular  promise,  and  the 
object  of  universal  affection, — Sidney  Godolphin^;  and  in 
the  fight  at  Lansdown  there  had  fallen  the  very  soul  of  the 
Cornish  Royalist  contingent,  Sir  Bevil  Grenvil ;  while  his 
stout  comrade,  Sir  Ralph  Hopton,  was  for  a  time  disabled  by 
a  wound.  At  Hopton  Heath,  by  Stafford,  the  King's 
troops  had  won  a  victory,  dearly  bought  by  the  loss  of  the 
Earl  of  Northampton,  as  signal  in  the  unselfish  devotion 
of  his  loyalty  as  he  was  conspicuous  by  his  prowess  in  the 
field.  He  was  a  fine  specimen  of  the  magnate  of  the  day, 
sharing  fatigue  with  the  common  soldier,  mixing  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight,  and  he  fell  surrounded  by  the  enemy, 
and  disdaining  the  quarter  which  was  freely  offered  him. 
The  capture  of  Bristol  had  not  been  effected  without 
heavy  losses,  that  made  it  but  a  Pyrrhic  victory.  Not 
the  least  notable  of  these  was  the  young  Lord  Grandison, 
a   model    of    knightly  chivalry,  alike    in    courage    and    in 

'  See  a7ite,  p.  31.     Godolphin  had  been  one  of  the  circle  at  Tew. 


1643]  DEATH   OF   HAMPDEN  213 

gentleness.^  With  such  a  spirit  amongst  them,  and  such 
a  debt  of  vengeance  to  repay,  the  Royahsts  were  Uttie  in 
the  mood  for  peace. 

In  the  city  and  amongst  the  adherents  of  Parhament, 
there  were  many  who  did  not  feel  the  same  ardour  for  the  war. 
They,  too,  had  suffered  heavy  losses.  In  June,  the  gentlest, 
the  most  conciliatory,  the  most  courteous,  and  the  most 
unselfish  of  those  who  had  opposed  the  King,  had  ridden, 
mortally  wounded,  from  a  skirmish  at  Chalgrave  Field, 
and  died  within  a  week.  In  John  Hampden,  behind  that 
mask  of  courtesy,  there  lay  an  intensity  of  purpose,  and  a 
subtle  power  of  guiding  other  men,  that  made  him  a  tower 
of  strength  to  his  party.  He  had  left  no  legacy  of  a  desire 
for  compromise.  Whatever  had  been  his  purposes  at  first, 
the  charge  of  high  treason,  levelled  against  him,  had  made 
him  the  relentless  enemy  of  the  King.  "  Without  question," 
says  Hyde,  "  when  he  first  drew  his  sword,  he  threw  away 
the  scabbard  ;  "  and  he  had  consistently  disapproved  any 
overtures  for  an  accommodation. 

But  there  were  others  on  that  side — and  they  had  no 
small  support  in  the  city — who  thought  that  the  time  was 
come  once  more  for  proposing  terms  of  peace.  The  House  of 
Commons  were  stern  enough  ;  they  refused  to  concur  with 
the  Lords  in  accepting  overtures  from  the  King;  they 
levelled  a  charge  of  treason  against  the  Queen  for  bringing 
in  a  supply  of  arms  for  those  who  were  lighting  against  "  The 
King  and  his  Parhament ; "  and  they  threatened  to  deal 
with  his  emissaries  as  spies.  But  defections  from  their  side 
proceeded  apace. 

1  Of  Grandison,  whose  birth  and  connections  are  described  on  p.  145,  note, 
Hyde  ^rrites :  "  He  was  a  young  man  of  so  virtuous  a  habit  of  mind,  that 
no  temptation  or  provocation  could  corrupt  him  ;  so  great  a  love  of  justice 
and  integrity,  that  the  Court,  or  camp,  could  not  show  a  more  faultless 
person,  or  one  to  whose  example  young  men  might  more  reasonably  conform 
themcelves."  The  only  charges  brought  against  him  were  that  as  a  youth 
he  had  been  venturesome  in  duels,  and  that  he  was  still  "  too  prodigal  of 
his  person." 


214      HYDE  IN  THE  COUKT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

When  the  King  and  Queen  were  again  in  Oxford,  some 
repentant  perverts  came  with  proffers  of  allegiance.  These 
were  Holland,  who  never  remained  long  fixed  to  one  set  of 
principles  ;  Bedford,  the  son  of  that  Earl  whose  death  in 
the  previous  year  had  removed  the  man  in  whom  Hyde 
placed  most  hope  for  a  fair  compromise  between  the  King 
and  the  aggressive  part  in  the  ParHament ;  and  the  Earl  of 
Clare.^  A  still  greater  defection  was,  not  without  good 
reason,  anticipated,  and  would  have  taken  place  had  Essex, 
who  had  all  but  abandoned  the  ParHamentary  party  in 
disgust,  not  been  persuaded  to  prolong  his  allegiance,  and 
link  his  fortune  still  more  closely  with  theirs.  Even 
Northumberland  had  once  more  shown  symptoms  of  wishing 
to  release  himself  from  the  ParHamentary  net. 

About  the  reception  of  Lord  Clare  no  difficulty  arose. 
But  when  the  King  returned  to  Oxford  he  found  his  adherents 
there  violently  divided  on  the  question  of  Bedford  and 
Holland.  Bedford  had  in  person  fought  against  the  King, 
and  of  Holland's  double-faced  treachery  there  could  be  no 
doubt.  The  question  of  allowing  them  to  come  from 
Wallingford  to  Oxford  was  fiercely  debated.  For  once 
Hyde  found  himself  in  agreement  with  the  Queen,  who,  by 
the  persuasion  of  Jermyn,  had  come  to  think  that  in  Holland 
and  Bedford  she  would  find  aUies  for  her  own  party  in  the 
Court  at  Oxford.  For  different  reasons  Hyde  thought  that 
repentant  opponents  should  be  welcomed  and  encouraged. 
But  most  of  the  others  were  too  indignant  to  have  any 
dealings  with  the  traitorous  earls  ;  and  although  it  was 
decided,  after  long  discussion,  that  they  should  be  permitted 
to  present  themselves,  and  although  they  actually  did  betake 

'  John  Hollis,  eldest  son  of  the  first  Earl  of  Clare,  was  born  in  1595,  and 
survived  the  Restoration,  dying  in  1666.  He  was  the  brother  of  the  notable 
Parliamentary  leader,  Denzil  Hollis,  who  made  terms  with  the  Royalists 
before  the  Restoration,  was  created  Lord  Hollis  in  1661,  and  survived  till 
1680.     Their  sister  was  the  wife  of  Strafford. 


1643]  BATTLE   OF   NEWBURY  215 

themselves  to  lodgings,  one  in  Magdalen  and  the  other  in 
Balliol,  they  found  themselves  coldly  received,  treated  with 
marked  disdain,  and  finally  were  forced  to  quit  the  Court  in 
disgust  at  the  scorn  of  their  overtures.  Holland  ^  was  the 
first  to  go,  and  he  was  quickly  followed  by  Bedford  and  Clare. 
Northumberland,  who  from  his  retreat  at  one  of  his  own 
houses,  had  watched  the  issue  of  the  negotiations,  returned 
and  made  his  peace  with  Parliament.  Once  more  what 
Hyde  thought  a  good  opportunity  for  reviving  the  fortunes 
of  the  RoyaHsts  was  recklessly  thrown  away. 

The  defections  of  the  discontented  Lords  had  left  the 
extreme  party  in  Parliament  masters  of  the  situation ;  and 
although  for  a  short  space  the  King's  affairs  seemed  to 
march  prosperously,  the  fixed  determination  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary leaders  soon  repaired  their  losses,  and  enabled 
Essex  to  start  on  a  victorious  campaign.  The  King's  siege 
of  Gloucester  was  raised  :  Essex  seized  on  Cirencester  ;  and 
the  success  of  Prince  Rupert  at  Cranbome  Chase  only  stayed 
for  a  time  the  prosperous  advance  of  Essex.  It  was  at 
Newbury  that  the  forces  of  the  King  met  those  of  Essex  on 
September  19th,  and  an  undecided  battle  left  the  road  free 
for  Essex  to  return  to  London  after  a  series  of  notable 
triumphs  which  completely  restored  the  confidence  of  his 
party.  Before  winter  set  in  each  side  were  shaping  for  more 
decisive  action. 

The  Battle  of  Newbury  marked  for  Edward  Hyde  an 
epoch,  not  in  the  campaign  only,  but  in  his  Hfe.  The  losses 
there  were  notable ;  and  we  need  not  be  unduly  surprised 
that  Hyde,  after  the  fashion  of  his  day,  weighs  lightly  the 
chance  of  some  obscure  officer  having  fallen,  or  some  citizen's 
wife  having  been  put  into  mourning,  on  the  Parliament 
side,  as  compared  with  those  cavahers  of  birth  and  fortune 

'  See  History  of  Rebellion,  vii.  247.      Holland  was  ill  received   by   the 
Parliament  {Ibid.,  311). 


216       HYDE  IN  THE  COUKT  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

who  gave  their  Hves  for  the  King.  The  Earl  of  Sunderland  ^ 
fell  in  his  first  campaign — a  youth  of  twenty-three  ;  and  the 
Earl  of  Carnarvon,^  who  had  redeemed  a  life  of  luxury  and 
easy  pleasure  by  devoted  loyalty,  which  was  in  his  case 
joined  with  a  keen  mihtary  instinct,  untainted  honour, 
and  a  promise  of  discernment  in  statesmanship  which 
aristocratic  idleness  had  concealed  until  adversity  had 
wakened  it. 

But  there  was  one,  above  all  the  others,  in  whose  death 
Hyde  "  lost  the  joy  and  comfort  of  his  life."  By  all  the 
ties  of  early  friendship,  by  close  association  in  pursuits  that 
inspired  all  their  deeper  feelings,  and  shaped  their  warmest 
aspirations,  Falkland  and  Hyde  were  bound  together  with  a 
love  passing  that  of  brothers.  The  very  variety  of  their 
dispositions  made  one  the  complement  of  the  other. 
Falkland  found  in  Hyde  that  discernment  of  men,  that 
tried  instinct  in  affairs,  that  fixity  of  political  aim,  and  that 
unswerving  devotion  to  the  dominant  traditions  of  consti- 
tutional order  in  Church  and  State  which  were  required  to 
guide  his  vaguer  aspirations,  his  proneness  to  linger  over 
the  defects  of  either  side,  and  his  lack  of  definite  conviction 
on  the  leading  questions  of  the  day.  In  Falkland  Hyde 
found  one  who  enlarged  his  sympathies,  gave  a  wider  range 
to  his  precociously  practical  perception  of  worldly  wisdom, 
and  imparted  higher  ideals  to  the  somewhat  professional 
cast  of  his  political  aims.  They  supplied  one  another's 
defects  and  supported  one  another  in  a  lofty  effort  to  rise 

1  This  Earl  of  Sunderland  was  born  in  1620,  succeeded  his  father  as  Lord 
Spencer  in  1636,  and  in  1639  became  the  husband  of  Dorothy  Sidney, 
daughter  of  Lord  Leicester,  and  celebrated  as  Waller's  Sacharissa.  He  was 
a  youth  of  singular  promise,  and  after  acquitting  himself  well  at  Edgehill,  he 
was  created  Earl  of  Sunderland  in  June,  1643.  He  was  killed  three  months 
later  at  Newbury.  His  son,  born  in  1640,  became  the  byword  for  political 
treachery  and  tergiversation  in  the  Revolution  period,  and  earned  the 
distrust  of  every  party  with  which  he  acted,  and  of  every  sovereign  whom 
he  served. 

-  Robert  Dormer,  Earl  of  Carnarvon,  1610-1643. 


LUCIUS  CAKY,  LORD  FALKLAND. 

{From  the  original  in  the  Bodleian,  Oxford.     Painter  unknown  ) 


1643]  DEATH   OF   FALKLAND  217 

above  the  petty  selfishness  that  often  ruled  supreme  in 
the  troubled  sea  of  political  trouble  that  raged  around 
them.  Hyde's  statesmanship  was  more  profound  ;  his 
perception  of  political  expediency  more  acute  ;  but  to  a 
feebler  practical  ability  Falkland  added  the  romance  and 
cliivalry  of  the  soldier's  instinct.  Henceforward  Hyde  was 
to  tread  alone,  and  unsustained  by  that  ardent  af!'ection,  the 
steep  and  arduous  path  that  lay  before  him. 

In  the  dignified  and  passionate  elegy  which  Hyde  utters 
upon  Falkland's  grave,  he  tells  us  in  words  that  sound  with 
thrilling  force  through  all  these  years,  the  noble  traits  of  his 
friend's  character.  He  traces  his  life  once  more  through  all 
these  years  ;  he  shows  his  acute  appreciation  of  the  motives 
that  shaped  Falkland's  views  in  all  the  early  stages  of  the 
troubled  times  ;  he  sets  forth  the  reasons  for  Falkland's 
acceptance  of  the  heavy  burden  of  service  as  minister  of  a 
falling  monarchy,  the  high  principles  that  inspired  him  in 
his  task,  and  the  doubts  and  perplexities  that  encumbered 
his  instincts  as  a  soldier  with  sad  misgivings  as  to  the 
confusion  and  evil  tendencies  of  the  times.  These  are  the 
solemn  words  in  which  Hyde  describes  the  last  tragic  scene 
of  his  friend's  short  life — 

"  When  there  was  any  overture  or  hope  of  peace,  he 
would  be  more  erect  and  vigorous,  and  exceedingly  solicitous 
to  press  anything  which  he  thought  might  promote  it ;  and 
sitting  among  his  friends,  often,  after  a  deep  silence  and 
frequent  sighs,  would,  with  a  shrill  and  sad  accent,  inger- 
minate  the  word  Peace,  Peace ;  and  would  passionately 
profess,  '  that  the  very  agony  of  the  war,  and  the  view  of 
the  calamities  and  desolations  the  kingdom  did  and  must 
endure,  took  his  sleep  from  him,  and  would  shortly  break  his 
heart.'  This  made  some  think,  or  pretend  to  think,  '  that 
he  was  so  much  enamoured  on  peace,  that  he  would  have 
been  glad  the  King  should  have  bought  it  at  any  price  ;  ' 
which  was  a  most  unreasonable  calumny.     As  if  a  man,  that 


218      HYDE  IN  THE  COUET  AT  OXFORD  [chap,  viii 

was  himself  the  most  punctual  and  precise  in  every  circum- 
stance that  might  reflect  upon  conscience  or  honour,  could 
have  wished  the  King  to  have  committed  a  trespass  against 
either.  And  yet  this  senseless  scandal  made  some  impression 
upon  him,  or  at  least  he  used  it  for  an  excuse  of  the  daringness 
of  his  spirit.  ...  He  would  say  merrily  '  that  his  office  could 
not  take  away  the  privileges  of  his  age  ;  and  that  a  secretary 
in  war  might  be  present  at  the  greatest  secret  of  danger ; ' 
but  withal  alleged  seriously  '  that  it  concerned  him  to  be 
more  active  in  enterprises  of  danger  than  other  men  ;  that 
all  might  see  that  his  impatiency  for  peace  proceeded  not 
from  pusillanimity  or  fear  to  adventure  his  own  person.'  .  .  . 
Whoever  leads  such  a  hfe  needs  not  care  upon  how  short 
warning  it  be  taken  from  him."  ^ 

'  Rebellion,  vii.  233. 


CHAPTEE  IX 

FIGHTING   AND    PARLEYING 

For  eighteen  months  more  Hyde  was  to  remain  as  guide  and 
adviser  at  Oxford  before  he  took  his  farewell  of  the  King. 
They  were  months  eventful,  alike  in  fighting  and  in  policy, 
on  both  sides.  So  far  as  the  fighting  was  concerned,  no  real 
skill  in  strategy,  and  no  plan  consistently  pursued,  had  yet 
appeared  on  one  side  or  the  other.  In  policy  new  causes  of 
exasperation,  and  with  these  new  projects  and  designs,  were 
arising  each  month.  The  mihtary  affairs  do  not  enter 
directly  into  Hyde's  biography.  But  his  was  the  steadying 
and,  in  the  main,  the  guiding  influence  in  policy  ;  and  he 
could  not  discharge  his  thankless  task  without  keeping 
himself  in  touch  with  every  turn  in  the  shifting  fortune  of 
the  battlefield,  and  every  passing  broil  in  the  motley  band  of 
military  leaders.  He  was  no  longer  sustained  in  that  task 
by  the  friend  who  was  bound  to  him  by  ties  of  the  most 
entire  sympathy,  and  by  an  affection  that  endured  as  the 
strongest  of  his  Ufa. 

Falkland  fell  in  September,  1643.  The  outlook  was  then 
black  indeed  for  the  cause  of  the  King.  In  the  preceding 
June  Charles  had  taken  a  step  of  doubtful  policy,  which  made 
hopes  of  conciliation  more  remote.  Its  motive  was  clear 
enough.  Was  it  dignified,  or  even  wise,  for  the  King  to 
continue  to  address  that  House,  which  had  extorted  from 
him  the  concession  that  dissolution  should  depend  solely  on 
their  own  will,  and  a  remnant  only  of  which  now,  with  the 


220  FIGHTING   AND   PAHLEYING        [chap,  ix 

solemn  title  of  Parliament,  exercised  tyrannical  power  and 
treated  all  variety  of  opinion  as  treason  ?  The  name  of 
Parliament  wielded  an  almost  superstitious  influence  upon 
the  minds  of  the  people,  and  it  seemed  possible  that  by 
disputing  its  pretensions  the  King  might  dissipate  the  spell 
that  it  exercised  on  popular  fancy. 

It  was  the  King  himself  who  first  mooted  the  new  project 
to  Hyde  ;  and  he  did  it  as  follows. 

It  was  true  that  he  had  assented  to  the  Act  which  made 
dissolution  independent  of  his  will.  But  he  doubted  whether 
such  assent  was  legal,  and  whether  he  could  divest  himself  of 
such  an  inherent  and  essential  part  of  his  prerogative.  Even 
were  this  not  so,  the  fact  that  the  dominant  majority 
had  expelled  so  many  members,  had  forced  the  King  to 
withdraw  from  Whitehall,  and  had  steeped  itself  in  re- 
bellion and  treason,  surely  deprived  it  of  the  character  of 
a  Parliament. 

The  argument  had  the  inherent  vice  of  all  those  contri- 
vances by  which  a  man  tries  to  slip  out  of  the  consequences 
of  his  own  acts ;  and  it  is  one  of  those  many  devices  by  which 
the  King  gave  some  reason  to  the  charges  of  Jesuitical 
reasoning  so  often  urged  against  him.  It  did  not  carry  weight 
with  Hyde,  and  he  had  no  hesitation  in  stating  his  doubts. 
To  declare  against  the  authority  of  Parliament  would  provoke 
the  fiercest  jealousy,  and  end  for  ever  all  hope  of  accommoda- 
tion. The  Act  which  assigned  to  it  the  veto  on  its  own 
dissolution  might  be  right  or  wrong  ;  but  to  dispute  it  on 
the  ground  that  the  royal  assent  was  invalid  would  be  to 
raise  a  similar  doubt  as  to  all  the  Acts  by  which  the  King  had 
made  concessions  to  the  popular  demands.  It  would  at  once 
consolidate  all  the  wavering  elements  on  the  Parliamentary 
side,  and  force  them,  if  they  desired  to  assure  even  the  most 
moderate  security  for  hberty,  to  side  with  those  who  would 
carry  on  the  resistance  to  the  bitter  end. 


1643]  AUTHORITY  OF  PARLIAMENT  QUESTIONED  221 

By  the  King  Hyde  was  referred  to  Herbert,  the  Attorney- 
General,  who  had  clearly  encouraged,  if  he  had  not  absolutely 
suggested,  the  arguments  by  which  the  King  tried  to  justify 
the  proposal.  Herbert  was  one  of  those  sulky  natures  who, 
after  they  have  persuaded  themselves  of  a  certain  course  by 
means  of  pedantic  legal  arguments,  resent  any  other  view  as 
a  personal  insult.  He  had  not  intelhgence  sufficient  to  form, 
nor  modesty  sufficient  to  allow  himself  to  be  guided  to,  any 
simple  and  straightforward  course  of  action.  Driven  from  an 
opinion  which  he  could  not  defend,  he  only  involved  himself 
and  others  in  a  maze  of  verbal  confusion.  It  was  with 
difficulty  that  either  Hyde  or  the  King  persuaded  him  to 
attempt  to  put  his  views  on  paper ;  and  when  he  did  so  the 
result  was  that  Charles's  exaggerated  estimate  of  his  ability — 
perhaps  due  to  an  innate  sympathy  for  legal  chicanery — 
underwent  a  startling  modification.  Herbert  no  longer 
carried  any  weight  with  him. 

Hyde  was  prepared  to  admit  that  a  fair  argument  against 
the  authority  of  Parhament  might  be  grounded  on  the  fact 
that  it  was  acting  under  coercion,  and  that  many  of  its 
members  were  illegally  excluded.  That  its  participation  in 
treason  could  involve  its  dissolution  was  a  figment  that  he 
promptly  dispelled.  Treason  might  disqualify  those  who 
were  proved  guilty  of  it,  but  the  act  of  individuals  could  not 
possibly  take  away  from  Parliament  its  essential  character. 
A  Declaration  was  accordingly  issued,  which  made  no  attempt 
to  escape  from  the  consequences  of  an  Act  which  had  re- 
ceived, with  all  due  formality,  the  seal  of  the  royal  assent, 
but  which  virtually  declined  to  recognize  the  authority  of 
the  Parliament  at  Westminster,  constituted  as  it  was. 

It  was  only  natural  that  this  should  kindle  new  resentment 
in  the  Parhament.  It  made  the  thought  of  accommodation 
more  than  ever  impossible,  and  inflicted  a  discouraging  blow 
on  those  who  were  disposed  to  press  for  it.     The  same  effect 


222  FIGHTING   AND    PAELEYING        [chap,  ix 

was  increased  by  the  alarming  discovery  of  a  plot  in  their 
own  midst,  by  which  the  city  was  to  be  seized  for  the  King, 
the  Parliament's  sympathizers  in  the  Common  Council  im- 
prisoned, and  the  centre  of  their  credit  handed  over  to  the 
military  forces  of  the  Crown.  Two  men  of  position  in  the 
city,  Tomkins  and  Challoner,  were  involved ;  and  with 
them  Edmund  Waller,  who  besides  being  the  brother-in-law 
of  Tomkins,  was  the  near  kinsman  of  Cromwell  and  of 
Hampden,  and  whose  ingratiating  popularity,  as  well  as  his 
silvery  eloquence,  gave  him  a  weight  in  Parliament  rarely 
accorded  to  one  whose  chief  occupation  lay  in  the  service  of 
the  Muses  and  in  the  cultivation  of  a  reputation — European 
in  its  ambit — of  a  poUshed  wit.  Severe  examples  must  be 
made  and  dire  vengeance  taken  for  a  plot  so  daring.  Tomkins 
and  Challoner  were  executed  ;  and  Waller  escaped  only  by 
a  craven  submission,  by  a  full  confession,  and  by  an  appeal 
to  Parliament  to  which  his  wit  and  eloquence  supplied 
irresistible  weight.  He  was  fined  £10,000,  and  lived  to  a 
ripe  old  age  with  a  reputation  which  his  shiftiness  depressed, 
and  which  only  his  wit  and  social  tact  redeemed  from  utter 
abasement. 

Neither  one  side  nor  the  other  were  yet  prepared  to  admit 
defeat,  although  neither  had  the  resources  or  the  skill  to 
achieve  victory.  Only  further  bloodshed  could  bring  a 
settlement,  and  meanwhile,  during  the  winter  months,  each 
could  seek  to  secure  their  own  pohtical  position,  and  strengthen 
their  alliances. 

The  death  of  Falkland  had  left  a  Secretaryship  of  State 
vacant.  The  King  proposed  that  it  should  be  filled  by  Hyde ; 
but  Hyde  knew  the  measure  of  his  own  capacity,  and  he  also 
had  experience  enough  of  the  jealousy  felt  at  Court  on 
account  of  his  increasing  influence.  Once  more,  as  when 
it  was  proposed  that  he  should  take  the  place  of  Nicholas, 
he  refused  the  offer,   on   the  plea  of  ignorance  of  foreign 


1643]  PLOT   IN   THE   CITY  223 

affairs  and  of  foreign  languages,  and  joined  his  influence  to 
that  of  the  Queen,  who  pressed  the  claims  of  Digby.  Hyde 
knew  Digby's  quickness  and  capacity,  much  as  he  distrusted 
his  waywardness  and  his  whims.  He  had  at  least  the 
experience  and  knowledge  of  foreign  affairs  which  the 
position  called  for,  and  his  powers  were  soon  put  to  the  test. 

In  France,  a  change  of  vast  significance  had  taken  place 
by  the  removal  from  the  scene  of  Louis  XIII  and  of  Richelieu. 
The  balance  of  influence  there  had  passed  into  another 
faction,  and  there  was  some  hope  that  a  new  policy  of  greater 
sympathy  with  the  British  Crown  might  be  evoked.  The 
former  ambassador  was  recalled,  and  in  his  place  was  sent 
the  Count  d'Harcourt — a  distinguished  soldier,  a  noble  of 
royal  descent,  and  the  distant  connection  of  the  English 
King.  The  Queen  and  Digby  cherished  fond  hopes  of 
effective  assistance  from  their  friends  in  France.  But  it 
soon  appeared  that  Mazarin  was  only  feeling  his  way  ;  that 
he  had  no  mind  to  an  irreparable  breach  with  the  English 
ParHament,  nor  sought  to  pursue  a  dangerous  knight  errantry 
in  succouring  the  King  from  the  hands  of  his  foes.  Harcourt 
came  nominally  as  ambassador,  really  as  a  spy.  His  object 
was  ostensibly  to  assist  in  bringing  about  an  accommodation  ; 
in  truth  it  was  to  estabhsh  a  good  understanding  with  the 
Parliamentary  leaders.  Rumours  were  rife  that  French 
gold  had  made  them  more  ready  to  accept  his  overtures. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  ambassador  soon  retired,  leaving  the 
hopes  of  the  Royalists  even  lower  than  before,  and  having 
established  direct  relations,  over  the  head  of  the  King,  with 
his  rebellious  subjects. 

On  the  part  of  the  King  and  of  Parliament  new  steps  were 
in  progress  for  securing  their  position.  Littleton  had  carried 
the  Great  Seal  to  the  King,  and  it  proves  the  long  survival  of 
respect  for  law  even  amid  the  clash  of  arms,  that  the  absence 
of  that  ceremonial  badge  was  felt  to  weaken  the  Parliament's 


224  FIGHTING    AND   PARLEYING        [chap,  ix 

authority.  The  Parhamentary  leaders  took  the  strong  step 
now  of  issuing  orders  for  a  new  Great  Seal,  which  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  duly  nominated  Commissioners. 
Although  the  King  was  absent,  the  emblem  of  his  authority 
was  now  replaced. 

One  of  the  greatest  perplexities  of  the  King,  as  it  gave 
to  the  Parliament  a  pretext  for  suspecting  his  allegiance  to 
Protestantism,  had    been    the    management    of    the    Irish 
rebellion.     While  they  refused  him  the  means  of  staying  the 
progress  of  the  rebels,  the  Parliament  was  able  to  lay  to  his 
charge  the  triumphs  in  Ireland  of  the  cause  of  Papacy,  on  the 
ground  that  he  would  not  agree  to  their  terms,  and  combine 
with  them — or  rather  abandon  to  their  hands — the  conduct 
of  military  affairs  there.     Charles  saw  that  this  festering  sore 
was  draining  at  once  his  resources  and  his  reputation  as  a 
sincere  Protestant,  and  that  at  all  hazards  some  relief  must 
be  given  to  the  sufferings  of  that  country  from  a  civil  war 
which — allowing  for  all  exaggeration — was  being  waged  with 
unexampled   bitterness,   and   was   permitting   a   dangerous 
interference   by   foreign   powers.     He   made   terms   for   a 
cessation  of  arms  ;  and  once  that  was  arranged,  the  order  was 
sent  to  the  Marquis  of  Ormonde  to  despatch  to  the  King's 
assistance  some  of  the  troops  liberated  from  the  immediate 
task  of  subjugating  the  Irish  rebels.     It  was  a  dangerous 
experiment.    The  accusation  of  faithlessness  to  his  Protestant 
subjects,  of  intriguing  with  Popish  powers  abroad,  of  unholy 
compacts   for    the   extirpation   of    the   reformed   religion, 
increased  in  virulence.     The  moderate  contingent  of  troops 
sent  over  from  Ireland  were  soon  defeated  and  dispersed. 
The  vain  effort  to  recruit  his  resources  by  condoning  the  guilt 
of  rebellion,  and  withdrawing  some  of  the  troops  sent  to  put 
it  down,  was  worse  than  useless ;  it  seemed  almost  to  give 
colour  to  the  very  charges  which  the  Parliament  were  most 
anxious  to  maintain. 


1643]      SCOTTISH  AND  IRISH  CONTINGENTS         225 

A  far  more  effective  means  of  seeking  a  new  alliance 
presented  itself  to  the  Parliament.  The  faction  of  Argyle 
had  long  been  dominant  in  Scotland.  Any  tincture  of 
Royalist  tendency  which  yet  lived  there  was  effaced  by  the 
essential  sympathy  between  those  in  both  countries  who 
sought  to  depress  the  authority  of  the  Crown.  Argyle  had 
pressing  need  of  support.  Strong  as  he  was  in  Scotland,  by 
virtue  of  his  passing  skill  in  dissimulation,  he  had  in  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton  and  his  brother,  the  Earl  of  Lanark, 
more  than  doubtful  allies,  and  in  the  Earl  of  Montrose  an 
open  and  implacable  foe.  It  was  almost  of  necessity  his 
policy  to  form  a  close  bond  with  the  English  Parliament. 
The  overtures  were  readily  received,  and  Commissioners 
were  soon  sent  from  England  to  treat  of  the  conditions 
upon  which  a  Scottish  army  might  enter  England  as  the 
allies  of  the  Parliament. 

The  arrangements  were  not  simple,  and  in  the  turbulent 
sea  of  Scottish  politics  it  was  easy  to  discern  currents  that 
would  contend  fiercely  with  the  main  stream  of  the  English 
popular  movement.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  which 
embodied  the  fundamental  standard  of  Scottish  Presbyterian- 
ism,  was  the  most  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands  of  Argyle, 
and  all  who  felt  with  him.  It  was  by  means  of  this  that  the 
most  powerful,  selfish,  and  unscrupulous  of  aristocratic 
oligarchies  enlisted  in  its  support  all  that  was  fervent  and 
enthusiastic  in  the  popular  sympathies  of  Scotland.  No 
tampering  with  it  was  possible  ;  and  no  alliance  that  did  not 
rest  upon  this  foundation  was  admissible.  How  could  it  be 
made  palatable  to  English  appetites  ? 

The  leading  commissioner  sent  to  deal  with  the  Scots 
was  the  younger  Sir  Henry  Vane,^  a  man  who,  to  his  father's 
turbulence,  joined  a  dexterity  in  the  management  of  hazar- 
dous combinations  to  which  that  father  could  not  pretend. 

'  Commonly  known,  Anthony  a  Wood  tells  us,  as  Sir  Humorous  Vanity. 
VOL.    I.  Q 


226  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING        [chap,  ix 

From  his  experience  in  America,  he  had  acquired  a  love  of 
poHtical  intrigue,  and  a  strong  sympathy  with  the  Independent 
phase  of  rehgious  or  ecclesiastical  doctrine  ;  and  this  was  en- 
hanced by  his  natural  tendency  to  a  sort  of  mystic  exaltation, 
in  him  united  with  an  instinctive  love  of  tortuous  ingenuity. 
With  marvellous  subtlety  he  managed  to  bring  the  Scottish 
leaders  to  trust  their  proposed  allies,  and  the  English  Parlia- 
ment to  accept,  under  easy  reservations,  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  which  was  the  price  to  be  paid  for  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Scottish  army.  It  was,  indeed,  a  feat  of 
MachiavelHan  dexterity  to  bring  a  party  which  was  hotly 
set  upon  the  extirpation  of  Episcopacy — very  largely  because 
Episcopacy  was  the  faithful  ally  of  the  Crown — to  accept 
the  yoke  of  an  intolerant  Presbyterianism,  of  whose  creed  the 
monarchical  system  formed  an  inherent  part. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  King  strove,  by  new  addresses  and 
negotiations,  to  break  the  compact  between  the  Scots  and 
Parliament.  It  was  hard  for  any  one  at  Oxford  to  see  through 
the  tortuous  mazes  of  Scottish  poHtics.  The  King  knew  not 
whom  to  trust.  He  had  long  since  discerned  how  little  he 
could  depend  upon  the  treacherous  pretence  of  loyalty 
assumed  by  Argyle.  Hamilton  and  Lanark  were  not  much 
more  worthy  of  confidence,  although  Lanark's  shiftiness  was 
due  rather  to  the  influence  of  his  brother  than  to  anything  in 
his  own  disposition.  Even  as  to  Montrose  it  was  hard  to 
judge  what  reHance  could  be  placed  on  his  vehement  denuncia- 
tions of  the  treachery  of  men  who  were  his  inveterate  foes  ; 
and  the  difficulty  was  the  greater  because  scandal  perhaps 
credited  him  with  an  offer  to  remove  them  by  assassination.^ 

'  It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  say  that  such  a  scandal  ever  took  sub- 
stantial form.  That  rough  soldier  of  fortune,  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  did 
certainly  offer  to  kidnap  Hamilton  and  Argyle,  or  to  stab  them  with  his 
own  hand,  and  the  same  readiness  in  ruthless  method  may  have  been 
ascribed  to  Montrose.  Strangely  enough,  Hjdc,  when  \\Titing  his  Life  far 
from  documents,  did  assume  its  truth  :  but  it  found  no  place  in  his 
earlier,  and  more  a,ccuia,te  History  of  the  Rebellion.  In  any  case  Montrose's 
character  gives  the  lie  to  the  story. 


1643]         SCOTTISH  AID  TO   PAELIAMENT  227 

The  Royalist  policy  in  regard  to  Scotland  was  nothing 
but  a  helpless  groping  after  some  light  amidst  its  darkness- 
Hamilton  and  Lanark  came  to  Oxford,  but  were  first 
received  with  coldness,  and  then  placed  under  arrest. 
Within  this  sphere  of  political  action  Hyde's  guidance, 
if  it  was  exerted,  was  worse  than  useless.  He  neither 
possessed,  nor  sought  to  acquire,  any  real  knowledge  of 
Scottish  affairs.  The  beginning  and  end  of  his  pohcy  towards 
Scotland  was  relentless  and  uncompromising  hatred  for  a 
nation  which  he  held  to  be  steeped  in  rebellion,  hardened  to 
an  uncouth  form  of  religious  creed  and  ceremonial,  inspired 
only  by  restless  selfishness,  and  ready  to  achieve  its  ends  by 
flagrant  breaches  of  every  law  of  conscience  or  of  honour. 
In  one  point  only  Hyde's  pohtical  instinct  was  absolutely 
correct  in  regard  to  any  compact  with  Scotland.  It  told 
him  that  no  compromise  would  be  more  fatal  to  his  own 
ideals,  or  more  inconsistent  with  the  deepest  feelings  of  the 
mass  of  EngHshmen,  than  one  which  sought  to  foist  upon 
England  the  yoke  of  an  aUen  Presbyterianism. 

The  negotiations  between  the  Court  and  the  Scottish 
Parliament  failed  absolutely ;  and  for  the  time  a  new  and 
heavy  blow  was  dealt  to  the  hopes  of  the  adherents  of  the  King. 
Those  between  Vane  and  the  Scottish  Covenanters  resulted 
in  the  acceptance  of  the  Covenant  by  the  Enghsh  Parliament, 
and  the  presence  in  England  in  January,  164^,  of  a  Scottish 
army  of  21,000  men.  It  may  almost  be  said  that  the  compact 
sowed  the  seeds  of  a  growth  which  eventually  led  to  the 
disruption  of  that  party  for  whose  strength  and  confidence 
it  was  arranged.  Hyde  failed,  as  a  diplomatist,  in  dealing 
with  the  Scots  ;  but  he  judged  correctly,  as  a  prophet, 
the  path  which  his  own  countrymen  would  ultimately  tread. 

The  violence  of  the  ecclesiastical  pohcy  of  the  Parhament 
had  already  shown  itself.  Hundreds  of  Episcopalian 
ministers  had   already   been   thrust   out   of   their  charges. 


228  FIGHTING   AND  PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

Armed  soldiers  had  dispersed  congregations,  and  the  attempt 
to  read  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  been  summarily 
repressed.  Now  the  taking  of  the  oath  to  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  was  enforced  on  every  incumbent.  For  the 
time,  a  triumphant  Presbyterianism  had  full  scope  for  its 
intolerant  sway.  The  Parliamentary  leaders  were  soon  to  find 
that  the  advantages  that  they  thus  gained  might  be  purchased 
too  dearly.  Before  many  months  were  over  there  were 
murmurings  between  the  EngHsh  and  the  Scottish  armies  ; 
before  a  year  was  over  Independency  was  showing  its  power, 
and  England  was  reaUzing  that  she  had  gained  little  by 
enthroning  Presbyterianism  in  place  of  Episcopacy. 

The  policy  of  this  new  compact  had  been  strongly  sup- 
ported by  one,  the  end  of  whose  career  was  near.  Pym's 
health  failed  rapidly  during  the  autumn — according  to  the 
most  trustworthy  accounts,  from  a  painful  internal  ailment. 
To  him,  probably  more  than  to  any  other  man,  the  gradual 
progress  of  the  Parliamentary  opposition  had  been  due.  He 
had  guided  it  in  its  first  stages  ;  had  intervened,  with  the 
instinct  of  a  Parliamentary  tactician,  at  the  critical  moment  in 
the  most  important  debates  ;  and  again  and  again  he  had  given 
the  lead  at  a  doubtful  juncture.  His  object  from  the  first 
had  been,  not  merely  to  curb  the  excesses  of  the  Royal  preroga- 
tive, but  fundamentally  to  alter  the  relative  position  of  the 
Crown  and  the  Parhament ;  to  introduce  something  like  the 
modern  system,  in  which  the  Crown  acts  only  through 
responsible  ministers,  who  virtually  owe  their  position  to 
Parliamentary  support — a  system  in  which  the  theory  that 
the  Sovereign  can  do  no  wrong  is  reconciled  with  actual 
facts  by  arranging  that,  however  great  the  personal  influence 
of  the  holder  of  the  Crown  may  be,  he  can,  as  a  Sovereign, 
undertake  no  political  act  whatever,  independent  of  his 
ministers.  It  is  a  scheme,  perhaps  salutary,  but  at  the  very 
least  as  revolutionary  as  was  that  which  inspired  Strafford 


JOHN    PYM. 


[From  the  original  bij  Cornelius  Janssen,  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert 

Museum.) 


1643]  DEATH   OF   PYM  229 

in  the  opposite  direction.  Pym  is  entitled  to  claim  the  credit 
due  to  one  who  anticipated  a  movement  which  was  destined 
eventually  to  point  the  line  of  English  constitutional  develop- 
ment down  to  our  own  day.  He  would  be  a  rash  man  who 
would  claim  for  it  finality  ;  the  man  who  would  claim  for  it 
indubitable  supremacy  amongst  all  other  constitutional 
systems,  or  hold  it  to  be  a  sure  guarantee  of  individual  liberty, 
proves  only  his  own  dogmatic  confidence.  Pym,  as  a  poli- 
tician, was  simply  an  adherent,  by  anticipation,  of  the  creed 
associated  with  the  Whig  of  the  days  of  the  Revolution  and 
the  Act  of  Settlement.  But  before  England  accepted  the 
political  settlement  at  which  he  aimed,  she  had  to  shake 
herself  free  from  the  incubus  of  a  rehgious  system  alien  to 
her  tastes,  her  traditions,  and  her  sympathies.  It  was  in 
partnership  with  a  strong  national  Episcopacy,  and  not  in 
alliance  with  an  alien  Presbyterianism,  that  she  ultimately 
shaped  her  constitutional  future. 

Pym's  aims,  then,  were  neither  very  exalted  nor  very 
original,  but  they  undoubtedly  showed  much  foresight.  To 
realize  them  he  apphed  with  much  skill  the  arts  that  must 
be  practised  by  a  Parliamentary  leader.  In  the  modern 
sense  of  the  word  he  and  Hampden  may  be  said  to  be  the 
first  of  the  long  line,  and  these  two  laid  down  some  rules 
that  have  guided  their  successors  ever  since.  Pym's  was 
no  accidental  leadership,  nor  was  it  designated  by  any 
patron  or  clique.  He  was  emphatically  leader  because 
he  had  the  power  to  lead.  He  was  not  exempt  from 
the  temptation,  incidental  to  the  position,  of  submitting 
himself  to  a  policy  with  which  he  was  not  in  accord, 
because  it  was  necessary  in  order  to  hold  his  party 
together.  He  accepted  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
most  undoubtedly,  from  policy  and  not  from  conviction. 
This  does  not  involve  any  charge  of  personal  dishonesty, 
nor    is     there    any    sufficient    ground     for    maintaining 


230  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING        [chap,  ix 

such  a  charge  against  Pyra.  That  he  was  ready  to  enter 
into  negotiations  for  accepting  office  from  the  King  as  late 
as  the  autumn  of  1641,  involves  no  implication  against  his 
honour,  nor  any  abandonment  of  his  aim.  He  may  well 
have  supposed  that,  as  a  minister  with  a  powerful  Parlia- 
mentary backing,  he  could  have  moulded  the  actual  adminis- 
tration to  his  own  mind,  and  reduced  the  CrowTi  to  the  degree 
of  stripping  aw^ay  all  its  independent  political  power,  without 
taking  from  it  the  weight  of  personal  influence.  That  he 
accepted  bribes  from  France  would  require  proof  stronger 
than  mere  gossip,  and  is  scarcely  consistent  with  his  dying 
a  poor  man,  whose  debts  Parhament  had  to  pay. 

Pym  died  in  December,  and  in  January,  164|,  the  Scottish 
army,  whose  assistance  had  been  bought,  by  his  advice,  at  the 
price  of  accepting  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  entered 
England.  In  the  same  month  a  bold  defiance  was  offered 
to  the  Parhament,  by  the  meeting  at  Oxford  of  those  members 
of  both  Houses  who  had  long  been  expelled,  or  had  withdrawn, 
from  Westminster,  and  whom  the  King  had  summoned  to 
meet  him  where  his  Court  was  then  held.  The  numbers 
were  considerable  :  not  fewer  than  118  of  the  Commons  and 
43  of  the  Lords  responded  to  his  summons.  The  King  ad- 
dressed both  Houses  in  the  Hall  of  Christ  Church,  and  after- 
wards the  two  Houses  sat  separately  in  the  Convocation 
Rooms.  They  at  once  showed  their  readiness  to  enter  upon 
negotiations  for  a  settlement.  A  letter,  signed  by  all  Peers 
and  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  were  at  Oxford, 
was  sent  to  Lord  Essex  on  January  29th,  stating  their  own 
anxiety  "  in  the  deep  and  piercing  sense  of  the  present 
miseries  and  desolations  of  our  country  ...  to  be  happy 
instruments  of  our  country's  redemption  from  the  miseries 
of  war,"  and  inviting  Essex  "  to  take  part  in  that  blessed 
work."  They  pray  for  his  help  in  arranging  that  "  some 
persons  be  appointed  on  either  part,  and  a  place  agreed  on, 


1644]  PARLIAMENT   AT   OXFORD  231 

to  treat  of  such  a  peace  as  may  yet  redeem  our  country  from 
the  brink  of  desolation."  ^ 

The  purpose  of  the  letter  would  seem  too  good  to  be 
recklessly  thrust  aside  by  any  one  who  had  the  public  weal 
at  heart.  But  Essex  was  in  a  difficult  position.  He  was  the 
servant  of  the  "  Parliament  assembled  at  Westminster,"  and 
to  receive  as  authoritative  a  communication  from  "  the 
Parliament  assembled  at  Oxford  "  would  have  been  a  breach 
of  his  commission.  Technically  he  was  right  simply  to 
acknowledge  "  a  letter  and  parchment  subscribed  by  divers 
Lords  and  gentlemen "  and  to  answer  that  "  it  neither 
having  address  to  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  nor  therein 
there  being  any  acknowledgment  of  them,  I  could  not 
communicate  it  to  them."  No  solution  of  the  dispute  was 
to  be  hoped  for,  through  the  medium  of  rival  Parliaments, 
each  denying  the  right  of  the  other  to  recognition.  The 
intention  might  be  laudable,  but  its  method  was  foredoomed 
to  failure. 

So  far  as  can  be  seen,  the  deliberations  of  both  Houses 
followed  very  much  the  lines  indicated  by  the  Council  of  the 
King,  or  rather  by  the  smaller  council,  which  was  called  the 
Junto  or  Cabinet,^  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  division 
of  parties  was  developed,  or  that  long  debates  took  place. 
One  important  step  they  did  take,  but  only  following  a 
policy  which  had  already  been  adopted  by  the  Parhament 
at  Westminster.  In  January  that  House  had,  to  meet  its 
financial  necessities,  established  an  excise  "  upon  wine,  beer, 
ale,  and  many  other  commodities."  "'  The  example  was  too 
good  to  be  thrown  away,  and  in  March  a  similar  excise  was 
established  in  all  the  towns  held  by  the  King.     On  both 

1  Rebellion,  vii.  373. 

-  This  consisted  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  Lord  Cottington,  Lord 
Digby  and  Nicholas,  the  Secretaries  of  State,  Sir  John  Colepepper,  Master 
of  the  Rolls,  and  Hyde,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Life,  i.  204). 

=  Rehellion,  vii.  396. 


232  FIGHTING   AND   PAELEYING        [chap,  ix 

sides  it  proved  the  easiest  and  most  sure  source  of  financial 
supply.  Both  sides  made,  as  Hyde  tells  us,  "  ample  declara- 
tions, with  bitter  reproaches  upon  the  necessity  that  drew 
on  this  imposition,  '  that  it  should  be  continued  no  longer 
than  to  the  end  of  the  war  and  then  laid  down  and  utterly 
aboHshed  ' ; "  "  which  few  wise  men,"  he  adds,  "  believed  it 
would  ever  be."  His  own  experience,  as  Chancellor  of  a 
very  impoverished  exchequer,  was  quite  sufficient  to  give 
him  confidence  in  that  early  prognostication,  which  time  has 
proved  so  true. 

The  spring  saw  the  renewal  of  the  campaign,  and  the 
months  of  early  summer  were  filled  with  some  thrilling 
adventures.  Oxford  was  threatened  as  the  Parliamentary 
forces  seemed  to  close  around  it.  The  Oxford  Parliament 
had  done  what  little  was  required  of  it,  besides  furnishing 
the  means  of  surrounding  the  Court  with  more  of  legal  form 
and  authority,  and  it  was  prorogued  till  October.  In  April 
the  Queen,  who  knew  the  inveterate  hostility  she  had  aroused, 
and  against  whom  Parliament  had  launched  an  impeachment, 
quitted  Oxford,  and  took  what  was  fated  to  be  her  last 
farewell  of  the  King,  her  husband.  She  retired  to  Exeter, 
where  in  June  she  gave  birth  to  a  Princess,  who  began  her 
short  life  amidst  the  noise  and  confusion  of  civil  war,  and 
ended  it  under  a  cloud  of  suspicion  as  Duchess  of  Orleans. 
Before  the  Queen's  health  was  re-established,  she  was  anxious 
to  take  the  waters  at  Bath,  and  applied  to  Essex  for  a  safe 
conduct,  which  was  refused  ;  and  the  almost  sarcastic  offer 
of  a  conduct  to  London  was  proposed  instead.  With  the  spirit 
of  her  race  she  ventured  the  journey  to  Falmouth  indepen- 
dently, and  safely  escaped  to  France. 

The  state  of  military  preparation  was  not  fitted  to  inspire 
confidence  amongst  the  Royalists ;  and  the  worst  feature  of 
all  was  the  ignoble  suspicions  and  jealousies — both  against 
the  members  of  the  Council  and  against  each  other — which 


1G44]      FINAL  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  QUEEN         233 

prevailed  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  grade  of  the  officers, 
and  naturally  infected  the  rank  and  file  of  the  King's 
army.  Little  as  he  personally  could  presume  to  judge  of 
tactics,  Hyde  saw  enough  to  know  that  no  consistent  military 
plan  was  pursued  for  many  days  together.  Had  they  held 
with  strength  the  various  garrisons  round  Oxford,  within 
easy  striking  distance  of  the  capital,  in  case  it  should  be  left 
deserted,  and  had  they  moved  a  strong  force  to  aid  their 
friends  in  the  west,  such  a  plan  would  in  Hyde's  opinion 
have  brought  good  promise  of  success  to  the  Royalist  arms. 
But  this  was  precisely  what  was  not  done.  Jealousy  as  to 
command,  the  over-obstinacy  of  one,  the  wayward  change- 
ableness  of  another,  and  above  all  the  constant  jealousy  of 
the  Council,  which  could  alone  judge  of  the  political  position, 
perplexed  all  plans,  and  made  it  plain  that  the  Royalists  were 
in  no  position  to  avaU  themselves  even  of  such  chances  as 
might  be  offered.  The  Council  of  War  admitted  to  its 
deliberations  only  Digby  and  Colepepper,  of  the  officers  of 
State.  When  Hyde  himself  was  consulted,  it  was  only  when 
it  was  too  late  for  advice,  and  when  ways  and  means  had 
to  be  provided. 

Of  the  military  officers — besides  Prince  Rupert,  who  set 
authority  at  defiance — the  first  in  position  was  Lord  Ruthen, 
the  old  Scotch  general,  created  first  Earl  of  Forth,  and  then, 
in  this  year  1644,  Earl  of  Brentford.  He  had  military 
experience,  and  unquestionable  courage  and  integrity. 
But  his  best  work  was  done.  Never  more  than  the  rough 
Scottish  miHtary  adventurer,  he  had  acquired  the  vices  of 
his  class,  and  his  very  moderate  understanding  was  now 
often  muddled  by  drink.  He  had  a  convenient  deafness, 
which  could  always,  when  he  chose,  relieve  him  of  responsi- 
bility for  plans  proposed  in  his  presence  and  accepted 
without  demur,  which  it  might  be  convenient  for  him 
afterwards  to  disavow.     Dugald  Dalgetty,  in  his  cups  and  in 


234  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING        [chap,  ix 

his  dotage,  was  not  the  best  leader  of  an  army  that  called 
for  iron  will  and  an  intelhgence  alert  enough  to  catch  every 
chance  opportunity,  in  a  war  where  swift  decision  and 
prompt  action  told  for  more  than  the  slow  methods  of 
prolonged  campaigns. 

Lord  Wilmot,  the  general  of  the  horse,  had  made  himself 
beloved  by  the  army  as  the  brightest,  wittiest,  most  free  and 
careless  of  boon  companions  ;  alert  enough  in  pressing  a 
proposal  that  he  fancied,  but  never  dominated  by  one  fancy 
for  long.  Impatient  of  contradiction,  with  a  positiveness 
that  looked  like  resolution,  ready  at  one  moment  to  mock 
the  senile  feebleness  of  the  general,  and  at  another  to  rouse 
his  temper  at  imagined  shghts  from  the  perverse  "  coun- 
cillors;" more  than  once  carrying  independence  of  action  far 
beyond  the  point  wherein  discipline  passes  into  rank  mutiny 
— Wilmot  was  one  who  had  to  be  alternately  humoured 
and  controlled.  Hopton's  qualities  we  have  already  seen ; 
a  man  of  "a  good  understanding,  a  clean  courage,  an 
industry  not  to  be  tired,  a  generosity  not  to  be  exhausted  ;  " 
above  all,  of  "  a  virtue  that  none  of  the  rest  had  "  ;  but 
his  ambition  did  not  aspire  to,  nor  his  abilities  warrant, 
his  appointment  to  supreme  command. 

There  was  another,  who,  although  once  already  proved  to 
be  capable  of  strange  freaks  of  treachery,  had  now  returned 
from  his  exile  and  again  found  himself  trusted  with  high 
command  in  Charles's  armies.  This  was  Goring,  whose  past 
history  we  have  already  seen,  and  whose  conspicuous  abilities 
were  more  than  balanced  by  a  callous  insensibility  to  all  the 
claims  of  honour.  He  divided  with  Wilmot  the  claims  of 
super-eminence  in  all  the  licence  of  profligate  debauchery. 
Both  were  past  masters  in  that  vice,  but  Wilmot  had  the 
decency  to  prevent  its  interfering  with  necessary  business. 
Both  had  sharp  wit,  but  Goring's  was  the  sharper,  "  save  in 
the  exercise  of  debauchery,  and  i}ie7i  Wilmot  was  inspired," 


1644]  GOEING   AND   WILMOT  235 

If  Wilmot  was  keen  to  discern  and  guard  against  danger, 
Goring  had  the  stronger  nerves  and  the  cooler  brain  to  meet 
it.  Not  the  most  urgent  claims  of  military  strategy  could 
tear  Goring  from  a  carouse ;  Wilmot  usually  kept  sober 
when  an  enemy  was  at  hand.  To  the  claims  of  friendship 
and  the  calls  of  honour  both  were  insensible  ;  but  Wilmot 
generally  had  a  motive  for  their  violation,  while  Goring 
sinned  without  scruple,  and  in  the  mere  wantonness  of 
humour.  In  both,  ambition  was  restrained  neither  by 
justice  nor  good  nature;  but  Wilmot  had  occasional  moods 
of  religious  impulse  which  startled  him  from  the  foulest 
wickedness.  To  greater  recklessness  of  crime  Goring  added, 
also,  a  higher  range  of  dissimulation.  When  Wilmot 
happened  to  be  sober,  he  felt  at  times  some  qualms  of  con- 
science ;  it  was  only  Goring's  utter  abandonment  to 
debauchery  that  kept  him  from  the  supremacy  of  wickedness 
in  his  generation.^ 

It  was  no  wonder  that  with  such  military  leaders,  the 
advice  of  trained  statesmen  hke  Digby  and  Colepepper 
should  have  a  weight  in  Council  which  was  apt  to  irritate  the 
soldiers'  professional  pride. 

In  the  opening  of  the  summer  Essex  advanced  against  the 
King  with  a  well-equipped  force.  Manchester,  supported  by 
the  Scottish  army  of  21,000  men,  could  be  trusted  to  look 
after  the  north.  If  Waller  kept  matters  safe  in  the  west, 
Essex  might  concentrate  his  efforts  on  making  Oxford 
untenable  by  the  King.  It  seemed  by  the  end  of  May  as  if 
his  purpose  might  be  accomplished,  and  consternation  was 
felt  amongst  those  gathered  in  what  had  hitherto  seemed  the 
secure  retreat  of  Oxford.  Hyde  had  to  pass  some  weeks  of 
strained  anxiety,  all  the  greater  because  he  had  not  the  relief 


'  Hyde  gives  vent  to  his  evident  detestation  of  both  in  the  two  portraits, 
where  he  allows  his  pen  an  almost  extravagant  range  of  vituperation,  and 
points  it  with  his  most  acid  wit  {History  of  Rebellion,  viii.  1G9). 


236  FIGHTING  AND  PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

of  that  active  service  which  fell  to  others.  Essex  approached 
as  near  as  Abingdon,  and  eventually  had  his  outposts  at 
Islip.  Waller  was  hemming  in  the  city  on  the  other  side,  and 
it  was  only  its  convenient  defences  of  the  Isis  and  the  Cherwell 
that  stayed  the  victorious  advance  of  the  Parliament's 
combined  army.  That  advance  must  have  placed  the  King 
and  all  his  followers  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  Essex  and 
Waller. 

It  was  on  June  3rd  that  Charles  left  Oxford  for  the  west, 
and  passed  by  hurried  marches  first  to  the  Cotswold  Hills, 
and  then  to  Worcester.  It  was  a  desperate  attempt,  but 
skilfully  contrived,  and  carried  out  with  that  conspicuous 
courage  that  grew  stronger  in  the  King's  breast  the  more 
disasters  crowded  upon  him.  The  Parliamentary  army 
learned  only  after  he  had  had  a  good  start,  that  the  object 
of  their  attack  on  Oxford  had  escaped  their  hands.  They 
followed  him  when  too  late,  and  left  the  Oxford  garrison  with 
leisure  to  strengthen  their  defences  and  to  increase  their 
stores.  When  he  had  reached  Worcester,  having  led  his 
enemies  on  a  fool's  errand,  Charles  turned  back  and  reached 
Oxford  safely  on  June  20th,  only  seventeen  days  after  he  had 
left  it.  He  found  that  good  use  had  been  made  of  the 
interval,  and  that  the  city  could  face  a  threatened  siege 
with  easier  courage. 

But  the  King's  plan  was  now  to  make  little  stay  at 
Oxford.  During  July  he  was  moving  about  Bucks  and 
Northamptonshire,  seeking  to  counter  the  plans  of  Waller. 
It  was  a  consciousness  of  weakness,  perhaps,  that  suggested 
this  plan  of  restless  campaigning.  But  it  disconcerted  his 
opponents,  kept  his  armies  busy,  and  perhaps  happily 
prevented  that  concentration  of  forces  which  would  have 
exhibited  too  plainly  the  enormous  preponderance  of  the 
Parliamentary  army.  There  were  dissensions  between  Essex 
and  Waller,  and  discontent  on  the  part  of  Essex  with  the 


1644]  MARSTON   MOOR  237 

treatment  meted  out  to  him  by  the  leaders  at  Westminster. 
These  gave  the  King  a  fair  opportunity,  that  with  better 
fortune  and  more  settled  counsels  might  have  been  turned  to 
more  effective  use.  But  the  lack  of  discipline  in  his  own 
army  prevented  his  availing  himself  to  the  full  of  any 
such  chances  as  offered.  At  Copredy  Bridge,  in  North- 
amptonshire, however,  on  June  29th,  he  managed  to  inflict 
a  blow  which,  if  it  did  no  more,  at  least  reduced  the 
prestige  of  Waller's  strategy  and  the  courage  of  his  army. 
Again  the  King  moved  westward,  to  rouse  the  spirits  of 
his  friends  there.  But  on  his  way  there  he  was  met  by 
the  crushing  news  of  the  disaster  of  Marston  Moor.  With 
his  usual  recklessness,  Rupert,  when  he  had  joined  his 
forces  to  those  of  Newcastle,  neglected  all  precautions, 
flouted  the  orders  of  the  older  general,  and  scorned  all 
military  advice.  Had  he  only  remained  quiescent,  the 
Parliamentary  army  in  the  north,  which  was  honeycombed 
with  jealousies,  and  ill  at  ease  in  its  junction  with  the  Scots, 
might  soon  have  been  reduced  to  impotence.  But  Rupert's 
overweening  confidence  persuaded  him  to  hurry  on  the 
battle  with  an  enemy  "  who  had  no  other  hope  to  preserve 
them  but  a  present  battle."  ^  The  consequence  was  the 
calamitous  rout  of  Marston  Moor,  in  July,  at  the  hands  of 
Fairfax  and  Cromwell,  which  broke  the  back  of  the  Royalist 
power  in  the  north,  lost  to  the  King  the  city  of  York,  and 
marked  the  most  decisive  decline  that  the  Royalist  cause  had 
as  yet  suffered.  Newcastle,  disgusted  at  his  treatment  by 
Prince  Rupert  and  the  open  scorn  of  his  command,  threw 
up  his  commission,  and  retired  to  the  Continent,  feeling  that 
all  his  loyalty  and  all  his  lavish  sacrifices  had  been  wasted  on 
a  failing  cause,  and  vexed  to  see  the  reckless  indiscipline  of  a 
favoured  boy  preferred  to  the  experience  and  unselfish  loyalty 
of  the  best  of  England's  aristocracy.     The  King's  forces  were 

'  Rebellion,  viii.  74. 


238  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

not  only  defeated  ;  the  defeat  had  overwhelmed  them  with 
shame  and  indignation.  They  were  not  beaten  only,  but 
betrayed.  The  consequences  of  such  a  blow  might  perhaps 
be  repaired  by  new  sacrifices  of  money  and  of  life  ;  the 
memory  of  it  would  never  be  effaced. 

Charles  still  moved  about  with  marvellous  pertinacity 
and  courage  in  the  west,  and  especially  in  Cornwall,  where 
he  was  opposed  by  Essex.  The  King  commands  respect  for 
an  energy,  and  even  a  grasp  of  strategy,  which  disaster  only 
brought  more  vividly  to  light.  When  he  was  present, 
success  generally  attended  the  Royalist  arms ;  it  was  when 
his  authority  was  absent  that  wavering  and  inconsistent 
plans  led  to  defeat.  No  behttling  of  his  abilities  can  set 
aside  the  unquestionable  fact  that  the  interest  and  the 
essence  of  the  war  now  centred  about  the  person  of  the  King ; 
that  it  was  he  individually  who  aroused  the  devotion  of  his 
followers  and  inspired  the  animosity  of  his  opponents. 
Constitutional  theories  grew  pale  in  the  fiercer  light  of  the 
personal  drama. 

Rumours  of  Essex's  discontent  bad  by  this  time  pene- 
trated to  the  RoyaHst  camp,  and  they  inspired  renewed  and 
eager  efforts  to  detach  him  from  his  fealty  to  ParUament. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  every  day  of  a  soldier's 
service  makes  fealty  to  the  cause  he  has  adopted  more 
entirely  part  of  that  soldier's  instinct  of  honour.  During 
the  first  skirmishes  men  might  feel  that  they  had  erred  or 
been  deceived,  and  might  with  honour  and  with  honesty 
change  their  sides.  But  as  the  war  waxed  older  they  had 
formed  new  ties  of  comradeship  and  had  phghted  a  deeper 
faith ;  they  had  fought  and  had  bled,  and  had  seen  others 
fight  and  bleed,  for  a  common  cause  that  was  now  sacred  to 
them ;  honour  now  pointed  out  their  course  more  clearly, 
and  the  instinct  of  mihtary  fidehty  had  obtained  a  firmer 
grip  upon  their  heartij.     Essex  acted  after  his  own  character. 


1G44J  ESSEX   DECLINES   TO   TREAT  239 

and  haughtily  decHned  all  dealings  apart  from  those  in  the 
ParUament,  whose  commission  he  bore,  and  whose  right 
to  his  mihtary  duty  was  a  stronger  thing  to  him  than  any 
refinements  of  political  argument,  or  any  theories  of  con- 
stitutional authority.  He  answered  a  letter  sent  by 
certain  officers,  with  the  connivance  of  the  King,  suggesting 
a  conference,  in  words  that  were  at  once  curt  and  dignified  : 

"  My  Lords, 

"  In  the  beginning  of  your  letter  you  express  by 
what  authority  you  send  it ;  I,  having  no  authority  from 
the  Parliament  who  have  employed  me,  to  treat,  cannot  give 
way  to  it  without  breach  of  trust. 

"I  am, 

"  Your  humble  servant, 

"  Essex. 
"August  10, 1644." 

These  were  the  words  of  a  soldier  who  prized  his  military 
honour  above  all  things,  and  who  knew  the  duty  which 
faithful  allegiance,  however  rashly  pledged,  imposed  upon 
him.  But  Essex  had  little  to  encourage  him  to  the  fight. 
Waller  had  already  hampered  and  opposed  him,  and  doubtless 
Essex  had  already  learned  that  an  opposition  stronger  than 
that  of  Waller  was  forming  against  him,  and  against  others 
of  his  order.  He  had  good  reason  to  beheve  that  Parliament 
was  not  over-zealous  in  their  support ;  and  as  a  fact,  even 
had  that  support  been  more  hearty,  the  resources  of  Parha- 
ment  were,  for  the  time,  unequal  to  the  task  of  keeping  on 
foot  the  various  armies  that  were  absolutely  necessary  to 
maintain  their  cause.  Although  just  on  the  eve  of  a  great 
accession  of  strength,  they  were  now  m  dread  of  imminent 
danger.  If  a  Eoyalist  army  were  dispersed,  the  magic  of  the 
King's  name  might  evoke  another  from  the  scattered  crowds 
of  his  adherents.  One  or  two  decisive  defeats  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary forces,    on  the  other  hand,  would  be  enough  to 


240  FIGHTING   AND   PAKLEYING       [chap,  ix 

dissipate  the  whole  fabric  of  their  power,  and  place  them 
absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  King.  There  were  com- 
paratively few  on  the  EoyaHst  side  who,  Hke  Hyde,  would 
have  deemed  that  such  a  success  might  prudently  be 
followed  only  by  obhvion  of  past  offences,  and  a  moderate 
restoration  of  the  power  of  the  Crown.  The  Parliament 
knew  that,  if  defeated,  they  would  be  at  the  mercy  of 
exasperated  men. 

Essex  was  therefore  hard  pressed,  and  at  last  found  himself 
irretrievably  cut  off  by  Charles's  forces  at  Lostwithiel,  in 
Cornwall.  He  added  indignity  to  his  defeat  by  himself 
escaping  by  sea  to  Plymouth,  and  leaving  his  lieutenant  to 
surrender  to  the  King.  Charles,  with  a  desire  for  conciliation 
that  was  perhaps  mistaken,  suffered  the  Parhamentary  army 
to  depart  with  the  loss  only  of  their  arms. 

This  happened  in  September,  and  Charles  now  began  to 
move  eastward  to  Oxford.  Before  he  arrived  there  he  had 
another  fight  with  the  combined  forces  of  Manchester  and 
Waller,  at  Newbury.  The  issue  of  the  fight  was  very 
different  for  the  two  sides.  For  Charles  it  was  enough  to 
achieve  his  object  of  returning  to  Oxford,  where  he  could 
make  secure  the  surrounding  garrisons,  and  establish  himself 
safely  for  the  winter  in  his  usual  quarters.  For  the  Parlia- 
mentary generals  it  seemed  essential,  if  the  struggle  so  often 
repeated  was  not  to  be  faced  again,  that  the  army  of  the 
King  should  be  so  broken  as  to  make  his  maintenance  of 
the  garrisons  round  Oxford  impossible.  Charles  achieved  his 
object  successfully ;  Manchester  and  Waller  suffered  a 
defeat  for  which  each  blamed  the  other.  The  necessity  of 
a  reorganization  of  their  forces  and  a  reconstitution  of  the 
commands  was  brought  distinctly  into  prominence.  The 
King  returned  once  more  to  winter  quarters  at  Oxford  on 
November  23rd,  1644,  and  the  task  of  again  framing  a  new 
policy  and  of  providing  new  resources  for  the  struggle  fell 


1644]  CEOMWELL'S   INFLUENCE  241 

on  Hyde  and  his  fellow-councillors.  They  soon  found 
that  they  were  now  to  have  a  more  relentless  enemy  to 
deal  with,  and  one  whose  plans  were  more  deeply  laid. 

Already  it  had  become  clear  that  a  new  force  was  at 
work  in  the  Parliamentary  ranks.  Those  members  of  the 
great  aristocracy,  like  Essex  and  Manchester,  who  had 
hitherto  given  to  the  cause  the  great  weight  of  their  names 
and  influence  and  had  brought  to  it  more  or  less  efficient 
military  skill,  were  necessarily  inclined  to  some  compromise, 
which,  while  it  would  curb  the  royal  prerogative,  would 
leave  their  social  and  political  conditions  unaltered.  They 
could  have  no  desire  to  see  the  whole  fabric  of  their  privilege 
disappear,  and  already  they  must  have  been  convinced  that 
if  any  remnant  of  it  were  to  be  preserved,  some  means  of 
ending  the  war  must  be  devised.  As  for  religious  matters, 
so  far  as  they  attached  any  importance  to  them,  they  were 
content  with  a  modified  Presbyterianism,  and  were  not 
prepared  to  hazard  other  things  in  order  to  preserve — if  they 
did  not  even  wish  to  destroy — Episcopacy.  They  found  it 
hard  to  keep  their  troops,  casually  raised,  and  still  more 
casually  paid,  by  the  county  authorities,  together  as  an 
effective  force  ;  and  it  was  therefore  clear  that  a  protracted 
war  included  the  possible  risk  of  a  disastrous  ending  which 
would  leave  them  all  in  the  position  of  defeated  traitors. 

All  such  counsels,  and  all  those  in  whose  interests  they 
were  pressed,  had  now  to  meet  the  deliberate  hostility  of 
Cromwell,  whose  plans  were  rapidly  ripening.  He  had  no 
love  for  the  Scots.  He  had  minimized  the  value  of  their 
aid.  He  had  no  mind  that  the  work  on  which  the  Parliament 
and  its  armies  were  embarked  should  have  a  limit  set  to  it 
by  the  pedantries  of  a  Scottish  Assembly,  or  the  selfish  tricks 
of  a  few  Scottish  nobles.  He  found  in  their  vaunted  Presby- 
terianism a  new  instrument  of  galhng  tyranny,  even  less 
acceptable  than  Episcopacy,  because  it  was  of  alien  birth  ; 
VOL.  I.  R 


242  FIGHTING   AND   PAELEYING       [chap,  ix 

and  in  the  growing  force  of  Independency  he  found  an  ally 
which  he  could  bend  far  more  easily  to  his  own  purposes. 
He  felt  that  the  fight  now  was  with  no  abstract  aims  of  pre- 
rogative, but  with  the  person  of  the  King ;  and  to  him  the 
man  who  sought  to  effect  a  compromise  was  one  who  mis- 
conceived the  whole  meaning  of  the  struggle,  and  who  was 
a  traitor  to  the  cause.  Above  aU,  he  saw  clearly  that  no 
levies  raised  by  a  timid  and  ineffective  miHtia  ordinance,  and 
no  army  which  could  impose  a  limit  to  its  own  military 
duties,  and  had  to  look  for  sustenance  only  to  casual  and 
irregular  pay,  could  be  a  fit  instrument  for  the  work  which 
they  now  had  in  hand.  When  they  had  drawn  the  sword, 
they  had  necessarily  cast  away  the  scabbard  ;  and  the  army 
must  have  its  action  freed  from  the  delays  and  imbroglios  of 
ParHamentary  faction. 

To  any  overtures  of  accommodation  Cromwell  was 
invincibly  opposed,  and  gradually  he  prepared  his  mines 
against  them.  Essex  had  now  lost  all  that  influence  with 
the  Parliament  which  had  once  made  his  easily  the  most 
commanding  name  amongst  the  adherents  of  their  cause. 
The  influence  of  Manchester  was  at  first  a  counterpoise  to 
his,  but  Cromwell  now  made  no  secret  of  his  opposition  both 
to  Essex  and  Manchester.  Already  in  the  autumn  of  1644, 
after  both  had  suffered  military  disaster,  he  made  use  of  his 
authority  in  Parliament  to  undermine  their  influence.  At 
the  same  time  he  pressed  on  the  scheme  of  the  New  Model 
Army,  which  was  to  be  levied,  not  through  county  authorities, 
but  by  the  supreme  power  of  Parhament,  and  for  which  pay 
was  to  be  provided  regularly,  and  at  fixed  rates,  by  those 
who  represented  the  State.  This  at  once  made  a  totally 
new  theory  of  discipline  operative,  and  stopped,  once  for  all, 
any  plea  that  a  man  could  not  be  called  upon  to  serve  except 
in  the  county  to  which  he  belonged  and  whose  summons  he 
had  obeyed.     Cromwell  pressed  another  and  a  more  drastic 


1644]  THE    NEW    MODEL  243 

ordinance,  which  was  aimed  at  the  commanders  them- 
selves. No  member  of  either  House  of  Parhament  was  to  be 
capable  of  holding  military  command.  As  soon  as  this 
ordinance  should  become  law,  every  member  of  the  House 
of  Lords  was  necessarily  deprived  of  any  hope  of  wielding 
authority  in  the  army,  which  was  for  the  time  the  centre  of 
power,  and  the  army  was  equally  divorced  from  the  ties  that 
bound  it  to  the  House  of  Commons.  If  a  man  wished  to 
have  his  hand  on  the  real  weapon  of  power,  he  must  retire 
from  its  debates. 

The  House  of  Lords  was  not  prepared  to  agree  to  a  change 
which  would  so  fundamentally  alter  their  relation  to  affairs. 
But  the  project  was  started  ;  their  eventual  assent  must  sooner 
or  later  be  extorted ;  and  they  were  reduced  to  a  degree  of  im- 
potence that  made  their  temporary  opposition  count  for  little. 

The  best  pohcy  for  those  who  were  determined  to  check 
projects  of  compromise  was  to  give  stern  instances  of  their 
resolve.  Such  an  opportunity  was  found  in  the  revival  of 
the  prosecution  of  Archbishop  Laud.  For  three  years  he  had 
lain  in  prison,  and  amidst  the  confusion  of  rapid  change  and 
the  shock  of  arms  it  might  have  been  thought  that  charges 
which  were  already  out  of  date,  and  accusations  which  had 
lost  their  meaning,  might  have  been  allowed  to  pass  into 
oblivion.  Laud  was  to  all  appearance  powerless  now,  and 
his  death  at  this  juncture  would  in  no  way  affect  the  ultimate 
result  of  his  work.  But  a  stern  lesson  had  to  be  taught  to 
those  who  talked  of  compromise,  and,  if  possible,  an  irre- 
parable breach  must  be  made  with  those  on  the  Royalist  side 
who  would  listen  to  proposals  of  accommodation  on  every 
other  subject  but  the  Church.  The  most  pronounced 
representative  of  their  views,  the  man  who,  more  than  any 
other,  stood  for  the  traditions,  ceremonies,  and  government 
of  the  Church;  must  be  pursued  to  the  death.  It  was  an 
ignoble  pursuit ;   but  its  very  ruthlessness  made  it  effective. 


244  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

There  was  a  pretence  of  a  trial  before  the  Peers  ;  but  the 
few  members  of  the  House,  who  still  deigned  to  wield  an 
almost  obsolete  authority,  scarcely  made  a  show  of  attention, 
and  did  not  take  the  trouble  of  sitting  through  the  arguments 
upon  which  they  were  to  pass  judgment.  With  less  of  scruple 
even  than  in  the  case  of  Strafford,  an"  Ordinance  of  Attauider" 
— it  was  no  longer  possible  even  to  assume  the  fiction  of  an 
Act — was  passed  by  the  Commons  and  contemptuously 
forced  upon  the  Lords,  even  though  some  lingering  qualms 
of  conscience  made  them  hesitate.  Amidst  their  own  quarrels 
and  jealousies,  and  while  the  chief  matter  occupying  the 
stage  was  the  ambition  that  grasped  at  a  tyrannical  mihtary 
domination,  these  stalwart  combatants  could  spare  a  moment 
to  take  a  belated  vengeance  upon  an  aged  and  enfeebled 
enemy  in  order  that  by  so  doing  they  might  make  the  breach 
in  the  State  henceforward  unbridgeable. 

Laud  was  led  to  execution  on  January  10,  164|.  So  far 
as  the  present  reHgious  controversy  was  concerned  his  passing 
from  the  scene  did  not  alter  the  position  by  a  hair's-breadth. 
Humanity,  were  it  allowed  to  judge  the  deed  upon  the  broad 
and  wholesome  standards  that  may  fitly  be  apphed  to  such 
a  case,  will  have  Httle  difiiculty  in  placing  it  in  the  proper 
category  as  an  act  of  atrocious  cruelty,  carried  out  in  defiance 
both  of  legal  sanction  and  of  moral  scruple.  That  pretence 
of  impartiaUty  which  seeks  to  find  excuses  for  all  the  acts 
of  the  ParHamentary  majority,  and  helps  its  sophistries  by 
some  admission  of  merit  in  the  aims  of  Laud,  is  ready  to 
argue  that  his  punishment  was  justified  because  of  his 
intolerance,  and  because  he  did  not  realize  the  ineffable 
advantages  of  a  vague  dream  of  indefinite  comprehension 
which  was  in  some  happy  period  to  take  shape,  and  was  to 
obhterate  the  chief  features  of  the  Church  of  England.  To 
such  pretence  the  downright  prejudices  of  pronounced 
partisanship  are  almost  to  be  preferred.     If  his  persecutors 


1645]  LAUD'S   EXECUTION  245 

are  to  be  justified  in  executing  Laud  because  he  was  intolerant 
in  enforcing  conformity  within  the  Church,  would  it  not  be 
well  to  adduce  one  word  from  them  alleging  such  a  charge  ? 
Laud  was  accused  not  of  intolerance,  but  of  innovation. 
There  was  sound  reason  in  the  charge.  Undoubtedly  Laud 
did  attempt  to  bring  into  the  services,  the  discipline,  the 
spirit,  of  the  Church,  an  order,  a  decency,  a  religious  fervour, 
which,  since  the  Reformation,  it  had  most  certainly  lacked. 
That  his  ideal  was  neither  that  of  disordered,  albeit  perfervid, 
fanaticism,  nor  that  of  gelatinous  indifferentism,  is  a  crime 
or  a  merit  according  to  the  taste  of  each  man.  Of  being 
intolerant,  Laud  was  not  charged  by  his  enemies  ;  of  intro- 
ducing a  spirit  of  innovation  he  was  not  only  accused,  but 
he  would  not  have  denied  the  charge.  His  innovations  have 
the  merit,  whatever  that  amounts  to,  of  having  lived  from 
his  day  to  our  own.  It  is  to  him,  more  than  any  man,  that 
we  owe  the  fact  that  the  Church  broke  with  the  cramping 
spirit  of  Puritanism — not  in  its  vulgar  sense  of  mere  decency 
of  morals,  but  in  its  deeper  sense  of  a  negation  of  the 
intellectual  and  aesthetic  aspect  of  religion.  It  was  he  who 
gave  that  ideal  of  Church  order,  which  was  all  but  banished 
in  the  commotion  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  Laud  also 
who  gave  that  germ  of  independence  to  the  Church  which, 
while  it  made  her  a  partaker  in  the  machine  of  well-ordered 
constitutional  government,  yet  preserved  her  from  the 
thraldom  of  an  exaggerated  Erastianism.  With  a  House  of 
Commons  largely  nonconformist  that  is  a  strange  survival,  but 
none  the  less  it  is  a  real  and  permanent  one  ;  and  it  is  to 
Laud  that  the  Church  owes  what  has  been  the  most  vitalizing 
element  in  her  constitution. 

The  execution  of  Laud  was  a  defiance  of  those  who  would, 
like  Charles  himself  and  Hyde,  have  sacrificed  much  in 
order  to  preserve  the  Church.  It  was  also  a  defiance  of  the 
House  of  Lords.     Again  that   House  was  humiliated  in 


246  FIGHTING   AND   PABLEYING       [chap,  ix 

the  proceedings  regarding  the  two  Hothams,  father  and  son. 
These  formed  a  tragic  ending  to  a  long  story  of  vacillation 
on  the  part  of  these  two  representatives  of  a  great  and 
wealthy  family  whom  their  own  misplaced  ambition 
and  tergiversation  brought  to  a  cruel  and  despised 
end.  With  httle  to  tempt  them  into  the  paths  of  revo- 
lution, they  had  at  first  sided  with  the  Parliament,  and 
had  found  themselves  forced  to  inflict  upon  the  King  the 
first  and  crowning  insult  of  closing  in  his  face  the  gates  of 
his  garrison  of  Hull.  Then,  jealous  of  the  superior  Fairfax 
influence,  they  had  involved  themselves  in  treachery  to 
Parliament,  and  had  been  imprisoned  for  a  year.  They  were 
now  tried  by  court  martial,  convicted,  and  beheaded,^ 
father  and  son  vying  with  one  another  in  an  odious  effort 
each  to  save  his  own  Hfe  at  the  expense  of  the  other.  Even 
in  the  annals  of  this  miserable  war  there  are  few  episodes  so 
pitiful.  The  efforts  of  the  Lords  to  save  them  were  imperi- 
ously brushed  aside. 

The  temper  of  the  dominant  party  in  Parliament  was  in 
little  mood  for  framing  terms  of  accommodation.  On  the 
other  hand,  Hyde  and  those  who  thought  with  him  were 
resolved  not  to  lose  the  chance  of  a  treaty  for  which  they 
trusted  that  the  divisions  amongst  their  opponents  gave  a 
gleam  of  hope.  The  ParHament  at  Oxford  had  again 
assembled,  and  was  ready  to  make  overtures ;  but  it  was 
felt  that  such  overtures  would  come  with  Uttle  prospect  of 
success  from  a  Parhament  whose  very  name  impHed  a 
derogation  from  the  dignity  of  the  Houses  at  Westminster. 
The  King  himself  wrote  to  propose  a  conference,  and  sent 
the  message  by  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  the 
Earl  of  Southampton,  to  whom  the  Parhament  granted  a 
safe  conduct.  Even  if  it  failed,  Hyde  rightly  judged  that 
it  would  be  useful  in  impressing  the  nation  with  a  behef  in 

'  January,  164|. 


1645]  CONFERENCE   AT   UXBRIDGE  247 

the  King's  anxiety  to  end  the  miseries  of  war.  Both  for  the 
King  and  for  Hyde,  the  Church  was  the  one  point  on  which 
there  could  be  no  betrayal  of  their  trust ;  and  that  was  also 
the  one  point  on  which  the  Parliamentary  party  was  hope- 
lessly divided.  Cromwell  and  his  party  were  fixed  in  their 
resolution  to  carry  on  the  war  to  the  bitter  end,  but  it  did 
not  suit  them  now  to  incur  the  odium  of  rejecting  at  the  out- 
set all  proposals  for  peace.  They  might  enter  upon  a  con- 
ference in  the  full  trust  that  they  would  secure  its  utter 
failure.  It  was  in  this  spirit  on  both  sides  that  the  conference 
at  Uxbridge  was  arranged,  and  gathered  in  February  for  a 
brief  and  agitated  meeting.  At  that  meeting  there  appeared 
for  the  Parliament  Northumberland,  still  angry  at  the  former 
rejection  by  the  Court  of  his  overtures  for  accommodation ; 
the  Earls  of  Pembroke  and  SaHsbury,  of  little  credit  and  interest 
either  in  Parliament  or  the  country,  and  both  judging  "  that 
the  highest  point  of  prudence  and  politic  circumspection  " 
was  the  retention  by  the  one  of  Wilton,  and  by  the  other  of 
Hatfield ;  and  the  Earl  of  Denbigh,  whose  pride  and  arrogance 
had  entangled  him  too  deeply  in  designs  of  which  ho  would 
wilhngly  have  shaken  himself  free,  and  who  professed  that 
wilhngness  very  freely  to  one  of  the  commissioners,  whom  we 
may  safely  identify  with  Hyde.  Pembroke  expressed  to 
Hyde  his  concurrence,  whatever  it  was  worth,  in  similar 
views.  Whitelocke  was  there,  pledged  by  his  own  interests, 
although  his  views  were  wavering,  to  adhere  to  his  Parlia- 
mentary allies.  Loudoun  and  Lauderdale,  with  the  other 
Scottish  commissioners  associated  with  the  English  represen- 
tatives, made  it  their  business  to  press  the  Presbyterian 
settlement,  which  commanded  no  hearty  support  from 
their  fellows.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  St.  John,  and  Prideaux 
were  the  representatives  of  the  Independents,  and  were 
in   truth   but  spies  upon  the  rest.^     From   commissioners 

'  Rebellion,  viii.  241. 


248  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

so  divided  little  hope  of  effective  business  could  be  looked 
for. 

The  main  points  for  discussion  were  three  :  the  settlement 
of  the  Church  ;  the  Militia ;  and  the  affairs  of  Ireland.  In 
regard  to  the  first  Hyde  was  privately  assailed  at  once  by 
Loudoun  and  Pembroke  by  earnest  suggestions  that  some 
substantial  concessions  should  be  made.  The  other  points, 
it  was  urged,  could  easily  be  arranged  if  this  stumblingblock 
were  out  of  the  way,  and  if,  by  a  surrender  of  the  Episcopal 
hierarchy,  the  King  would  yield  to  the  earnest  wish  of  those 
who  would  support  him  in  the  essentials  of  his  power.  Such 
a  concession  would  have  been  against  the  conscience  of 
Hyde  as  much  as  of  the  King,  and  he  was  perhaps  able  to 
discern  that,  even  had  it  been  made,  it  would  have  rendered 
the  hostihty  of  the  Independents  not  less,  but  more,  inveterate, 
He  expressed  himself  in  the  same  sense  in  the  open  dis- 
cussions. 

In  regard  to  the  Militia,  for  a  time  it  looked  as  if  a  com- 
promise were  more  possible.  If,  it  was  urged,  some  con- 
cessions might  be  made,  it  would  weaken  the  objections  under 
the  other  heads.  Hyde  and  the  commissioners  for  the  King 
urged  him  to  give  them  leave  to  propose  that  the  Militia 
should  be  placed,  for  seven  or  eight  years,  in  the  hands  of 
persons  sworn  to  observe  certain  articles  which  the  treaty 
might  lay  down,  and  they  even  suggested  certain  names, 
including  those  of  Essex,  Northumberland,  Warwick, 
Manchester,  Fairfax,  and  Cromwell.  The  King  reluctantly 
agreed,  and  named  certain  persons  on  his  own  part,  amongst 
whom,  to  his  dismay,  Hyde  found  himself  included.  But 
time  was  thus  wasted  ;  there  was  no  cordial  wish  for  a 
settlement  on  the  side  of  Parliament,  and  when  the  con- 
ference broke  up  no  agreement  was  reached. 

As   for   Ireland,   the  matter  was  really   one  rather  of 
mutual  suspicion  than  of  real  desire  to  settle  some  method 


1645]  ITS   FAILURE  249 

of  procedure.  The  Parliamentary  commissioners  complained 
that  the  King  had  made  an  untimely  truce,  and  had  then 
employed  the  troops,  set  free  by  it,  against  his  own  Parlia- 
ment. The  King's  commissioners  could  equally  urge  that 
the  Parhament  had  employed  troops  and  money,  raised  for 
Ireland,  in  prosecution  of  the  civil  war  in  England.  Each 
saw  that  to  hand  over  to  their  opponents  the  means  of 
effectively  deahng  with  the  Irish  difficulty  was  to  place  in 
their  hands  an  instrument  that  might  be  used  for  far 
different  purposes.  It  was  a  battle  of  accusation  and 
suspicion,  not  a  sincere  effort  to  compose  a  difficulty. 

The  sands  of  time  were  running  out,  and  Hyde  found  his 
worst  fears  realized.  The  quarrels  amongst  the  adherents  of 
Parliament,  however  fierce,  were  not  enough  to  make  them 
yield  up  any  of  their  pretensions.  Had  either  party  of  the 
disputants  within  their  ranks  shown  any  such  indication, 
they  knew  that  they  would  return  to  Westminster  discredited 
and  powerless.  Cromwell  had  foreseen  with  absolute  fore- 
sight that  this  futile  effort  would  increase  his  power.  Hyde 
saw  that  he  must  be  content  with  having  shown  that  the 
King  was  eager  for  a  settlement.  His  efforts  to  get  nearer 
to  it  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  From  his  own  vivid 
account  of  the  negotiations  we  can  picture  the  thin  coating 
of  superficial  courtesy  that  covered  ineradicable  suspicion, 
and  a  deadly  conviction  that  either  side  must  aim  at  nothing 
less  than  the  complete  destruction  of  the  other.  We  catch 
glimpses  of  renewals  of  old  intercourse,  which  would  fain 
have  become  more  cordial,  but  were  carried  on  under  the 
watchful  eyes  of  jealous  associates.  The  rules  of  precedence 
were  strictly  observed.  Ample  opportunities  were  given  for 
consultation,  and  the  premises  at  their  disposal  were  arranged 
with  every  regard  to  the  convenience  of  all.  They  approached 
the  Council  Chamber  by  separate  doors  and  staircases  ;  they 
respected  one  another's  privacy  ;  and  carefully  abstained  from 


250  FIGHTING   AND   PARLEYING       [chap,  ix 

violence  of  language.  But  it  was  such  observance  of  studied 
courtesy  as  is  maintained  during  the  preliminaries  of  a  deadly 
duel.  The  men  who  sat  opposite  one  another  could  recall 
old  friendships,  and  many  of  them  would  gladly  have  for- 
gotten later  feuds  ;  but  they  knew  well  that  they  greeted  one 
another  for  the  last  time,  and  would  meet,  if  they  ever  met 
again,  as  implacable  foes. 

The  conference  broke  up  after  the  stated  period  of  one 
and  twenty  days,  and  from  the  last  sittings  it  became  clear 
that  even  the  formalities  of  outward  courtesy  could  not  be 
observed  much  longer.  They  had  been  days  of  unresting 
labour  for  Hyde,  above  all,  by  whom  many  of  the  written 
replies  for  his  own  side  were  drawn.  His  strength  was  well- 
nigh  exhausted,  and  he  welcomed  the  end  of  the  useless 
effort.  The  conference  ended  without  result ;  but  during 
its  progress  the  King's  affairs  had  been  notably  injured  by 
the  loss  of  Shrewsbury. 

Hyde's  own  position  was  soon  greatly  altered.  Some — 
he  probably  amongst  them — were  of  opinion  that  the  cost 
of  the  effort  to  keep  the  Court  at  Oxford  was  too  great.  They 
would  have  wished  the  garrison  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
while  the  Court  moved  westward  to  Bristol  or  Exeter,  where 
the  King  would  have  had  leisure  to  recruit  his  forces.  But 
Oxford  provided  a  pleasant  and  convenient  lodging  for  the 
luxurious  crowd  that  still  gathered  round  the  Court — -most  of 
them  counting  as  mouths  to  feed,  and  not  as  arms  to  fight. 
This  bold  change  of  plan  was  therefore  abandoned.  But 
the  King  came  to  the  conclusion  that  to  keep  the  Prince  in 
his  own  company  was  "  to  venture  too  much  in  one  bottom." 
"  It  was  time,"  ^  he  thought,  "  to  unboy  his  son  by  putting 
him  into  some  action  and  acquaintance  with  business,  out 
of  his  own  sight."  He  had  already  chosen  a  Council  for  the 
Prince,  consisting  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  the  Earl  of 

'  Prince  Charles  was  born  in  1630,  and  was  now  in  his  fifteenth  j^ear. 


1645]  DEPARTURE  OF  HYDE  AND  THE  PRINCE    251 

Southampton,  Lord  Capel,  Lord  Hopton,'  Lord  Colepepper, 
and  Hyde ;  to  whom  the  Earl  of  Berkshire  was  added  as 
the  Prince's  governor,  a  post  in  which  he  had  succeeded 
Hertford,  and  which  from  sheer  stupidity  he  was  singularly 
incompetent  to  fill.  It  was  now  decided  that  the  Prince, 
with  his  Council,  should  move  to  the  west,  and  take  up  his 
quarters  at  Bristol.  Richmond  and  Southampton  foresaw 
the  difficulties  that  would  attend  the  task,  and  managed  to 
evade  it.  The  others  had  to  undertake  what  was  an  irksome 
charge.  Under  the  nominal  command  of  the  Prince — in 
reality  under  the  supervision  of  his  Council — the  forces  in  the 
west  had  to  be  reorganized.  At  a  distance  from  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  King,  it  was  certain  that  mihtary  jealousies, 
easily  stirred  against  civil  control,  would  soon  reappear  in  re- 
doubled intensity,  and  Hyde,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
whose  ministerial  authority  was  enforced  by  no  commanding 
rank  or  aristocratic  connection,  was  likely  to  feel  the  full  brunt 
of  those  jealousies.  It  must  have  been  with  sore  misgivings 
that  Hyde,  on  March  4th,  164^,  took  what  was  to  be  his  last 
farewell  of  the  master  whose  confidence  had  been  extended 
to  him  unsought  and  had  remained  unbroken  ;  his  loyalty 
to  whom,  though  often  tried,  had  never  been  impaired  ;  and 
to  whom  his  advice  had  been  given,  always  with  honesty, 
and  often  with  uncompromising  frankness.  He  entered  now 
upon  one  of  the  most  harrowing  and  anxious  of  the  many 
weary  years  that  lay  before  him.  The  King's  last  words 
urged  him  to  preserve  the  peace  with  Colepepper,  whose 
jealous  temper  he  knew  as  well  as  Hyde.  The  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  was  confident  enough  in  his  own  power  of 
self-command  to  reassure  the  King,  and  by  anticipation  to 
take  the  blame  upon  himself,  if  any  such  quarrel  should 
injure  the  interests  of  the  cause. 

'  Sir  Ralph  Hopton  and  Colepepper  had  now  been  created  Barons. 


CHAPTEE  X 

DISASTER   TO   THE    ROYAL   CAUSE 

Hyde  was  not  allowed  to  begin  his  journey  westwards, 
and  enter  on  a  charge  which  was  to  be  an  arduous,  a  thank- 
less, and  a  disheartening  one,  without  having  a  foretaste 
of  the  treacherous  dealing  with  which  he  would  have  to 
count,  amongst  the  various  contending  cliques  at  the  Court. 
He  was  unwilhng  to  go,  and  begged  the  King  that  he  might 
be  suffered  to  stay  at  his  side,  where  his  duties  as  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  could  alone  be  properly  discharged.  Rich- 
mond and  Southampton  had  claimed  exemption,  although 
they  belonged  to  the  Council  attached  to  the  person  of  the 
Prince  ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  Hyde's  official  position  gave 
him  at  least  an  equal  claim  to  such  exemption.  It  was  only 
on  the  King's  declaring  that,  unless  he  would  go,  the  Prince 
must  at  all  hazards  remain  at  Court,  that  Hyde  withdrew 
his  objections.  He  knew  well  the  suspicions  that  were  rife 
as  to  the  object  of  withdrawing  the  Prince.  It  was  only, 
according  to  these  reports,  a  first  step  towards  withdrawing 
him  from  the  kingdom.  Such  a  withdrawal  would  seem 
to  indicate  reliance  upon  France,  and  to  portend  an  armed 
foreign  force,  organized  by  the  Queen's  efforts,  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  power  of  the  Crown,  on  terms  satisfactory  to  the 
Roman  Catholics.  Whether  this  was  so  or  not,  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Prince  to  a  place  of  safety  certainly  made  the 
King  more  independent  of  the  Parliament,  and  less  likely 
to  be  forced  to  come  to  terms.     As  a  consequence  of  such 


1645]  DIGBY'S   STRATAGEMS  253 

a  move,  it  was  only  too  probable  that  all  overtures  for  peace 
would  be  laid  aside.  Hyde  sympathized  with  those  who 
desired  to  further  such  overtures,  and  probably  dreaded 
that  in  his  absence  the  King  would  be  persuaded  to  follow 
a  policy  of  determined  resistance,  and  to  recruit  that  resist- 
ance from  sources — whether  in  Ireland  or  abroad — that 
would  irretrievably  break  any  hope  of  compromise. 

But  there  were  other  influences  at  work.  Through 
Digby,  to  whom  every  art  of  insinuation  came  easily,  and  who 
was  never  diverted  from  a  plan  because  it  was  daring  or 
hazardous.  Queen  Henrietta  maintained  her  power,  and 
pursued  her  own  policy,  at  the  Court  of  Oxford.  Her  resi- 
dence in  France  had  brought  her  mto  close  relations  with 
the  Queen-Mother,  and  Mazarin's  cunning  for  the  moment 
induced  him  to  pretend  to  be  favourable  to  the  Royalist 
cause.  Henrietta  formed  new  hopes,  and  these  she  would 
not  sacrifice  either  to  a  desire  to  placate  the  Parliament, 
or  to  any  scruples  about  running  counter  to  Charles's  fixed 
determination  to  give  no  ground  for  suspicions  of  his  leaning 
to  the  papists.  Hyde  soon  found  that  all  his  prudence 
would  be  required  to  guard  him  against  the  traps  laid  for 
him.  Digby  approached  him,  purporting  to  be  the  bearer 
of  compliments  from  the  King,  who  desired  to  express  his 
high  sense  of  Hyde's  services,  and  who,  as  Digby  pretended, 
was  withheld  from  personally  consulting  him  on  a  point  of 
the  highest  moment  only  by  the  fear  that  Hyde  would  not 
agree  with  his  own  judgment.  Hyde  repHed  that  he  had 
always  given  his  opinion  freely,  but  that  he  would  feel 
bound  to  carry  out  any  order  "  that  became  an  honest 
man,"  even  though  he  did  not  believe  it  to  be  a  wise 
one.  Digby  then  dilated  on  the  serious  aspect  of  the 
King's  affairs ;  the  chances  that  a  cessation  of  discord 
in  the  Parliamentarian  ranks  might  range  against  the  King 
an  invincible,  because  united,  army.     In  such  a  case,  did 


254  DISASTEE  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

Hyde  not  think  it  would  be  wise  to  remove  the  Prince 
from  England  ? 

Hyde  replied  that  such  a  contingency  must  undoubtedly 
be  faced,  and  that  if  it  occurred,  and  a  real  and  not  imaginary 
danger  of  the  Prince  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Parliament 
arose,  then  it  would  certainly  be  right  to  transport  him  any- 
where— to  Turkey,  if  need  be — in  order  to  prevent  his 
becoming  the  prisoner  of  Parliament.  But  such  a  design 
must  be  kept  absolutely  secret,  and  must  never  be  carried 
into  effect  "  upon  any  supposition  of  a  necessity." 

So  far,  Digby  proceeded,  they  were  all  agreed  ;  but  there 
was  something  more.  If  the  King's  affairs  went  adversely, 
then  he  would  be  pressed  by  the  nervous  timidity  of  some 
of  his  friends,  even  more  than  by  the  enemy.  In  terror  of 
the  risks  they  themselves  ran,  they  would  urge  the  King 
to  place,  not  the  Prince  only,  but  himself  and  all  his  children, 
in  the  hands  of  the  Parliament.  They  would  fear  that  the 
King's  natural  alarm  would  lead  him  to  send  the  Prince  to 
France,  and  in  order  to  prevent  such  a  design  would  press 
him  to  bring  the  Prince  back  to  his  own  presence,  or  at  least 
to  issue  peremptory  orders  against  his  quitting  England. 
The  result  would  infallibly  be  to  make  the  King  and  his 
heir  at  once  prisoners  to  Parliament,  and  to  render  the  King 
powerless  to  press  for  terms,  which  he  might  do  in  reliance 
upon  his  heir  being  beyond  their  reach.  These  timid 
counsellors  would  secure  their  own  object,  which  was  to 
earn  a  claim  upon  the  gratitude  of  the  Parliament,  whose 
game  they  would  play  so  well. 

Hyde  was  shrewd  enough  to  detect  the  snare.  Clearly, 
whatever  orders  the  King  might  give  as  to  the  Prince  remain- 
ing in  England,  these  would  be  represented  as  based  only 
on  compulsion,  and  it  would  be  urged  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Prince's  Council  to  carry  out,  not  the  letter  of  the 
King's  orders,  but   what  they  must  conclude  was  his  real 


164r>]  HYDE'S   PROTEST  255 

interest.  That  the  King  might  convey  such  an  indirect 
message  to  Hyde  was  evidently  intended  as  a  hint  that  he 
should  not  hereafter  pay  undue  attention  to  written  orders, 
but  that,  on  any  suspicion  of  danger,  the  Prince  should  be 
transferred  to  France.  There  the  Queen  and  her  Roman 
Catholic  adherents  might  proceed,  with  such  a  hostage  in 
their  hands,  to  make  terms  for  the  King's  security  which 
might  be  little  in  accordance  with  his  wish.  Hyde  was  to 
be  made  a  tool  in  the  very  policy  which  it  was  his  first 
object  to  counteract.  He  turned  upon  Digby  in  words 
that  implied  the  scorn  of  any  honourable  man  for  such 
trickery. 

"  He  hoped,"  he  said,  "  that  the  King  had  made  up  a 
firm  resolution  never  to  depart  from  his  own  virtue,  upon 
which  his  fate  depended  ;  if  he  forsook  himself,  he  had  no 
reason  to  depend  upon  the  constancy  of  any  other  man,  who 
had  nothing  to  support  that  confidence  but  the  conscience 
of  doing  what  was  just." 

If  the  King  ordered  his  son  to  be  carried  out  of  the 
kingdom,  to  avoid  his  being  taken  by  the  rebels,  he  would 
not  only  obey  the  order,  but  advise  its  prudence.  '*  But 
if  the  King,  being  at  liberty,  and  with  his  own  counsellors 
and  servants,  should  under  his  hand  forbid  "  such  an  act, 
he  would  never  disobey  such  a  command,  once  received. 
"  He  might  take  the  boldness  to  conjure  him  never  to  put 
an  honest  and  a  faithful  servant  to  that  unjust  strait,  to 
do  anything  expressly  contrary  to  his  plain  and  positive 
command,  upon  pretence  of  knowing  the  secret  pleasure." 
Such  an  "  artifice  was  not  worthy  the  royal  breast  of  a  great 
monarch."  What  he  would  do  if  an  order  were  issued  when 
the  King  was  actually  in  duress,  circumstances  must  decide. 

These  words  tore  through  the  whole  sorry  web  of  deceit. 
Hyde  told  Digby  that  he  would  be  glad  if  the  King  spoke 


256  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

to  him,  and  that  he  would  repeat  to  his  Majesty  the  same 
views.  But  he  suspected — and  his  suspicions  were  confirmed 
— that  the  guise  of  an  emissary  from  the  King  was  only 
assumed  by  Digby  for  the  purpose  which  he  and  the  Queen 
designed.  There  was  no  reason,  as  Hyde  knew  well,  that 
the  King  should  not  speak  to  him  directly,  if  at  all.  They 
had  been  in  constant  intercourse,  and  every  detail  of  the 
Prince's  journey  had  been  privately  discussed  between  the 
King  and  Hyde.  Not  a  single  word  of  this  Jesuitical 
contrivance  was  breathed  by  the  King  to  Hyde ;  and 
"  concurrent  circumstances,"  as  he  says  with  some  sarcasm, 
convinced  him  that  the  whole  was  devised  by  the  Queen, 
and  promoted,  under  her  orders,  by  Digby.  Digby  "  tried 
to  feel  his  pulse,"  and  did  not  like  the  symptoms.  The 
Queen  and  he  learned  now  how  little  Hyde's  dogged  fidelity 
might  be  tampered  with. 

The  Prince  and  his  train  set  out  on  a  day  ^  of  storm  and 
rain  from  Oxford,  and  reached  Bath  in  three  days.  There 
he  stayed  for  two  days  before  going  on  to  Bristol.  The 
wet  journey,  or  the  still  worse  anxieties,  proved  too  much 
for  Hyde's  health.  For  the  first  time  he  had  a  severe 
attack  of  gout,  which,  during  the  harassing  years  that 
followed,  again  and  again  laid  him  aside.  This  time  it  was 
soon  relieved. 

The  narrative  of  the  next  year  is  not  only  the  most 
stormy  and  dramatic  in  incident,  and  the  one  most  marked 
by  the  increasing  disasters  that  pursued  the  Royalist  cause  ; 
but  it  is  also  that  in  which,  so  far  as  the  military  history  goes, 
Hyde  was  most  directly  interested.  We  have  plenty  of 
memoirs  and  documents  which  give  us  ample  and  not 
always  consistent  accounts ;  but  that  of  Hyde  transcends 
them  all  in  its  force  and  reality,  and  in  its  impression  of 
candid  truth.     It  is  always,   of  course,   possible  to  point 

'  March  4,  164f. 


1G45]     HOPELESSNESS  OF  ROYALIST  CAUSE       257 

out  small  errors  and  inconsistencies,  and  for  those  who  are 
out  of  sympathy  with  his  views  of  the  whole  struggle,  these 
small  points  naturally  assume  an  exaggerated  importance. 
But  no  one  had  a  grasp  of  the  influences  underlying  all  the 
Royahst  policy  equal  to  that  of  Hyde,  and  no  one  adhered 
with  more  constancy  to  a  certain  consistent  course.  He  could 
estimate  the  difficulties  better  than  almost  any  one  in  that 
camp  ;  and  while  absolute  accuracy  is  manifestly  impossible 
to  one  who  attempted  so  large  a  survey  as  he  after  the  lapse 
of  years,  only  partisan  prejudice  can  attribute  to  him  any 
conscious  desire  to  vary  from  what  he  beUeved  to  be  the 
truth.  The  actual  conduct  of  mihtary  affairs  did  not  rest 
with  him,  and  the  details  of  failure  and  success  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  his  biography.  But  we  have  only  to 
think  what  all  the  other  narratives  would  be,  without  his, 
to  recognize  what  we  owe  to  the  sweep  and  comprehensive- 
ness of  his  survey  of  the  march  of  events.  It  is  the  broad 
outlines  only  that  we  have  to  mark. 

He  begins  his  narrative  with  a  sort  of  prologue  of  denuncia- 
tion of  the  evils  that  had  crept  into  the  Royalist  party,  and 
of  the  dire  effects  they  wrought.  It  has  the  intensity  and 
moral  weight  of  the  chorus  in  a  Greek  tragedy.  It  was, 
he  says — 

"  A  time,  in  which  the  whole  stock  of  afifection,  loyalty, 
and  courage,  which  at  first  alone  engaged  men  in  the  quarrel, 
seemed  to  be  quite  spent,  and  to  be  succeeded  by  negligence, 
inadvertency,  and  dejection  of  spirit  contrary  to  the  natural 
temper,  vivacity,  and  constancy  of  the  nation  ;  and  in  which 
they  who  pretended  most  public  heartedness,  and  did 
really  wish  the  King  all  the  greatness  he  desired  to  preserve 
for  himself,  did  sacrifice  the  public  peace,  and  the  security 
of  their  master,  to  their  own  passions  and  appetites,  to  their 
ambition  and  animosities  against  each  other,  without  the 
least  design  of  treachery  or  damage  towards  his  Majesty  ; 
a  time  in  which  want  of   discretion  and  mere  folly  produced 

VOL.    I.  s 


258  DISASTEE  TO  THE  EOYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

as  much  mischief  as  the  most  barefaced  villainy  could  have 
done." 

He  proceeds  in  words  which  are  all  the  graver  because 
of  his  sincere  and  faithful  loyalty. 

"  Nor  is  it  possible  to  discourse  of  all  these  particulars, 
with  that  clearness  that  must  subject  them  to  common 
understandings,  without  opening  a  door  for  such  reflections 
upon  the  King  himself  as  shall  seem  to  call  both  his  wisdom 
and  his  courage  into  question,  as  if  he  had  wanted  the  one 
to  apprehend  and  discover,  and  the  other  to  prevent,  the 
mischiefs  which  threatened  him.  .  .  .  And  as  he  was  always 
severe  to  himself,  in  censuring  his  own  oversights,  so  he 
could  not  but  well  foresee  that  many  of  the  misfortunes 
of  this  ensuing  year  would  reflect  upon  some  want  of 
resolution  in  himself,  as  well  as  upon  the  gross  errors  and 
oversights,  to  call  them  no  worse,  of  those  who  were 
trusted  by  him." 

But  even  these  reflections  do  not  lessen  the  weight  of 
his  generous  meed  of  admiration  for  the  King. 

"  Without  my  being  over-solicitous  to  absolve  him  from 
those  mistakes  and  weaknesses  to  which  he  was  in  truth 
sometimes  liable,  he  will  be  found  not  only  a  prince  of 
admirable  virtue  and  piety,  but  of  great  parts  of  knowledge, 
wisdom,  and  judgment ;  and  that  the  most  signal  parts 
of  his  misfortunes  proceeded  chiefly  from  the  modesty  of 
his  nature,  which  kept  him  from  trusting  himself  enough, 
and  made  him  believe  that  others  discerned  better,  who  were 
much  inferior  to  him  in  those  faculties." 

He  proceeds  with  the  narration,  in  a  proud  spirit  of 
personal  impartiality. 

"  I  know  myself  to  be  very  free  from  any  of  those  passions 
which  naturally  transport  men  with  prejudice  towards  the 
persons  whom  they  are  obliged  to  mention,  and  whose 
actions  they  are  at  liberty  to  censure." 

When  the  Prince  and  his  Council  proceeded  towards  the 


1645]  DISORGANIZATION  2 


01 


west,  it  was  with  strong  assurance  of  abundant  help,  and 
lavish    undertakings    as    to    financial    contributions.     But 
when  they  arrived  at  Bristol,  it  was  soon  found  how  empty 
these  promises  had  been.      No  force  had    been  brought 
together,   no  scheme  for  organizing  possible  resources   of 
revenue  had  been  devised.     On  the  contrary,  the  Council 
found  themselves  immersed  in  a  sea  of  ignoble  quarrels 
and    selfish   personal  jealousies.     Such   military    forces   as 
existed    were    honeycombed  with    factions,   which   agreed 
only  in  their  consuming  jealousy  of  the  civilian  members 
of  the  Council,  and  in  their  determination  that  whatever 
was  undertaken  should  be  under  the  sole  direction  of  the 
military  officers,  and  should  aim  at  what  would  secure  for 
them  the  reward  which  they  believed  themselves  to  have 
earned.     Just  at  the  moment  when  the  Parliamentary  forces 
were  being  reorganized  in  the  only  way  consistent   with 
prolonged   military   operations,   the  evils   which  from   the 
first  had  been  present  amongst  the  Royalist  levies  became 
exaggerated    into    something    like    anarchy    and    disorder. 
The  rumours  that  had  reached  them  of  Cromwell's  New 
Model   Army   only  gave  food   for  ill-timed  and   ill-judged 
ridicule  and  contempt.     Cromwell  had  discerned  that  the 
old  levies  by  commissions  of  array,  or  militia  ordinances, 
raised    by   separate    counties,    subject   to    separate    local 
authorities,  paid  by  the  irregular  contributions  of  their  own 
districts,  and  conceiving  that  their  duties  were  limited  to 
those  districts — were  totally  unfitted  for  the  work  they  had 
to  do.     He  had  estabhshed  the  germ  of  a  regular  army — 
paid  by  national  funds,  owing  allegiance  to  national  authority, 
pledged,  not  to  local,  but  to  national  service.     The  Royalist 
forces  were  more  than  ever  casual  in  their  assembling,  and  more 
ready  to  disperse  themselves  when  they  conceived  that  they 
had  done  their  meed  of  duty.     They  were  casually  paid  by 
contributions  levied  from  each  locahty  to  defray  the  charges 


260  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

of  its  own  recruits.  They  were  officered  by  men  who  were 
supposed  to  have  local  connection  and  local  influence,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  were  too  often  involved  in  local  quarrels, 
that  infected  the  different  branches  of  the  mihtary  force 
in  the  service  of  the  King.  That  force  was  often  found  to 
consist  only  of  an  undisciplined  horde,  who  conceived  that 
every  topic  of  personal  jealousy  was  an  adequate  ground  for 
freeing  them  from  their  allegiance,  and  that  each  danger 
threatened  to  their  own  possessions  gave  them  a  right  to 
withdraw  themselves  for  their  defence. 

The  so-called  Self-denying  Ordinance  was  soon  after 
(in  April)  assented  to  by  the  Lords,  and  the  whole  system  of 
military  commands  on  the  Parliamentary  side  was  fundament- 
ally changed.  The  military  fabric  stood  upon  its  own 
foundation,  entirely  separate  from  the  Parliament.  Nomi- 
nally it  was  under  Parliamentary  control ;  but  as  the  work 
in  hand  was  one  on  which  difference  of  opinion  was  certain 
to  emerge  at  every  turn,  the  dissidence  of  army  and  Parlia- 
ment was  inevitable,  and  it  was  easy  to  foresee  with  which 
the  weight  must  lie.  The  Self-denying  Ordinance  was, 
indeed,  a  corollary  of  the  New  Model.  Once  a  regular  army 
was  constituted,  it  was  inevitable  that  its  officers  should 
be  a  body  apart  from  the  legislature.  Only  by  that  means 
could  the  fiction  of  subordination  be  maintained ;  and 
equally  it  was  by  that  means  alone  that  a  separate  entity, 
of  overpowering  strength,  could  come  into  existence.  That 
Cromwell  alone  should  at  once  maintain  his  seat  in  Parha- 
ment  and  his  mihtary  command,  was  not  so  important  as 
it  might  seem.  It  was  no  doubt  useful  for  him  that  ParHa- 
ment  should  still  be  open  to  him  as  a  possible  means  of 
denouncing  his  enemies,  and  of  browbeating  a  troublesome 
faction.  It  was  convenient  that  he  should  seem  to  have  that 
respect  for  Parhament  which  his  membership  implied. 
But  in  truth  Cromwell  had  never  been  a  Parliamentary 


1645]  CORRUPTION   OF   ARMY  261 

leader  in  the  sense  of  Pym  and  Hampden,  and  now  he  ceased 
even  to  have  an  interest  in  Parhamentary  affairs,  except 
so  far  as  these  afforded  an  index  of  the  prevailing  feeling. 
His  sphere  of  action  was  henceforward  in  the  army  and  in 
the  army  alone.  He  had  in  it  a  machine  of  ever-developing 
force,  while  he  had  opposed  to  him  an  army  in  which  all  the 
inherent  defects  were  day  by  day  becoming  more  apparent. 
It  was  in  the  midst  of  its  vain  efforts,  and  in  view  of  its  new 
disasters,  that  Hyde  had  to  do  his  best  to  maintain  some 
consistency  of  policy. 

Hyde  is  careful,  in  the  grave  denunciatory  words  with 
which  he  opens  his  narrative,  to  guard  himself  against 
being  supposed  to  depict  any  "  universal  corruption." 
There  were  still  wise  and  earnest  men  amongst  the  King's 
advisers.  There  were  pure  and  ardent  souls,  hke  Lord 
Hopton  and  Lord  Capel,  of  whose  unselfish  heroism  we  shall 
have  full  proof.  There  were  still  many  whose  deaths  might 
be  recorded  in  words  like  those  which  Hyde  uses  of  the 
Earl  of  Lichfield,  who  fell,  following  two  of  his  brothers  who 
had  already  given  their  lives  for  their  King,  when  Poyntz 
broke  the  King's  force  at  Chester — "  He  was  a  very  faultless 
young  man,  of  a  most  gentle,  courteous,  and  affable  nature, 
and  of  a  spirit  and  courage  invincible."  But  for  the  mass 
of  those  who  commanded  what  Hyde  is  compelled  a  few 
months  later  to  describe  as  "a  dissolute,  undisciplined, 
wicked,  beaten  army  " — "  only  terrible  in  plunder  and 
resolute  in  running  away  " — it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
greed,  arrogance,  blundering,  or  debauchery  was  the  most 
notable  characteristic.  Let  us  take  a  few  specimens.  There 
was  Lord  Goring  whom  we  have  met  so  often — now  intent 
chiefly  on  quarrelling  in  turn  with  every  colleague  doomed 
to  serve  with  him ;  thwarting,  secretly  or  openly,  the 
Council  of  the  Prince  ;  perpetually  changing  his  plans,  and 
sulkily  standing  aloof  when   the  precise  position  which   he 


262  DISASTEK  TO  THE  KOYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

coveted  was  not  assigned  to  him  ;    constant  only  to  that 
perpetual    debauchery    which    was    reducing   his    admitted 
military  capacity    to   absolute   uselessness ;    careless   what 
rancours  he  might  arouse  so  long  as  he  gratified  a  passing 
humour,  or  inflicted  some  injury  upon  the  personal  enemy 
of  the  moment ;    perpetually  appealing  against  the  Council 
to  the  King,  and  yet  affecting  independence  even  of  the 
King's   authority.     When   complaints   were   made   against 
his  marauding  soldiers,  who  made  no  distinction  between 
friends  and  foes,  he  turned  them  off  with  an  insult  or  a  jest. 
The  fishermen  going  to  sell  their  fish  at  Exeter  complained 
that  they  were  plundered.     "  Why  then,"  said  Goring,  "  how 
you  libel  my  soldiers  by  accusing  them  of  proneness  to  swear- 
ing !      If  they  were  profane,  how  could  they  catch  fish  ?  " 
When   Cornishmen  were  fighting  under  his  command,   in 
their  own  county,  he  stirred  their  just  anger  by  his  familiar 
treatment  of   Irish  recruits,  whom  he  would  jocularly  slap 
on  the  back,  and  tell  them  "  they  were  each  worth  ten 
Cornish  cowards."     There  was  Sir  Eichard  Grenville,  also 
of  admitted  bravery  and  no  small   military  talent,  but  so 
absorbed  in  love  of  money  that  he  considered  his  command 
as  little  but  a  means  of  extortion,  whether  with  or  without 
some  petty  legal   pretext ;    under  whose  authority   loyal 
adherents  of  the  King  were  fined  or  committed  to  prison, 
because  they   did  not  submit   to  some  arbitrary  fine  or 
contribution.     So  far  as  he  himself  was  concerned,  he  threw 
discipline  to  the  winds,  defied  and  even  insulted  the  Council, 
attempted  to  challenge  the  express  orders  of  the  Prince,  and 
was  reduced  to  submission  only  when  placed  under  arrest. 
It  argues  much  for  the  loyalty  of  the  simple  souls  who  had 
groaned  under  his  oppressions,  that  when  stern  measures 
were  taken  with  him,  they  were  the  first  to  intercede  on  his 
behalf,  and  even  to  fret  themselves  into  mutiny  against 
those    whom   they    deemed   his    persecutors.      It   is   not 


1645]       INTRIGUES   AROUND   THE   PRINCE  263 

surprising  to  find  Hyde  provoked  to   impatience  at  such 
childish  inconsistency.^ 

Nor  were  there  wanting  other  unruly  elements  in  the 
mixed  crowd  that  gathered  about  the  Prince.  Young  as 
he  was,  Prince  Charles  seems  even  thus  early  to  have  shown 
considerable  shrewdness,  and  the  power  of  making  his 
authority  felt.  But  his  was  to  be  a  hard  school  of  experience, 
and  already  flatterers  and  rogues  had  learned  how  to  in- 
sinuate themselves  into  his  good  graces.  At  Bridgewater 
he  found  his  former  nurse,  Mrs.  Windham,  whose  pride  and 
arrogance  tempted  her  to  assume  an  air  of  familiarity  ;  who 
openly  scoffed  at  the  Council,  and  magnified  the  Prince  at 
the  expense  of  the  King.  In  the  midst  of  serious  business 
it  was  a  hard  aggravation  for  Hyde  to  have  to  counteract 
the  insolent  promptings  of  an  ill-natured  and  ill-bred  woman  ; 
and  at  a  later  day  her  son.  Colonel  Windham,  had  equally 
to  be  excluded  from  the  company  of  the  Prince.^  Even 
grosser  agents  of  debauchery  and  corruption  had  to  be 
excluded  from  that  company  by  the  ill-supported  action  of 
the  Council.^  It  says  much  for  Charles,  and  not  less  for 
Hyde,  that  a  tutelage  borne  and  exercised  amidst  such  un- 
toward circumstances,  did  not  break  down  the  barriers  either 
of  respect  or  of  affection  between  the  two.  Whatever  judg- 
ment we  may  pass  on  his  later  years,  Charles  undoubtedly 

'  Hyde  in  his  letters  shows  us  clearly  enough  his  views  of  the  generals. 
"  Well,  you  generals  are  a  strange  kind  of  people,"  he  begins,  in  writing  to 
Goring  from  Bristol.  He  goes  on  to  try  to  cajole  and  argue  him  into  com 
pliance  -with  some  reasonable  scheme,  and  winds  up  thus  :  "  For  God's 
sake  let  us  not  fall  into  ill-humours,  which  may  cost  us  dear.  Get  good 
thoughts  about  you,  and  let  us  hear  speedily  from  you  to  a  better  tune  ; 
however,  you  will  pardon  the  plainness  of  Your  Lordship's,  etc.,  Edwakd 
Hyde."  In  June  he  wTites  to  Nicholas  about  Goring  in  plain  terms  enough. 
"  If  Lord  Goring  had  been  as  much  soldier  as  we  expected,  that  work"  (the 
reduction  of  Taunton) "  had  been  done  long  before  this  time ;  but  he  nothing 
but  drinks  and  plays." 

2  See  Rebellion,  ix.  19,  53. 

^  One  Wheeler,  whose  character  was  of  the  most  noisome  baseness, 
managed  for  a  time  to  get  admittance  to,  and  was  with  difficulty  banished 
from,  the  Prince's  Court. 


264  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

gave  proof,  at  this  time,  of  no  small  mental  acuteness,  as 
well  as  of  a  physical  strength  which  could  endure  fatigue 
and  hardship  with  no  undue  repining.  Few  boys  of  fifteen 
could  have  risen  so  well  to  that  delegated  authority  which, 
even  if  it  was  exercised  under  supervision,  yet  often  called 
both  for  acuteness  and  for  tact.  The  disappointments 
which  met  the  Prince  and  his  Council  on  their  arrival  at 
Bristol  were  quickly  followed  by  fresh  military  disasters. 
More  and  more  the  troops  of  the  Parliament  pressed  towards 
the  west,  until  it  looked  as  if  theRoyaUst  adherents  were  to 
be  pent  up  in  Cornwall.  In  the  earher  stages  of  the  war 
they  had  achieved  success  by  preventing  the  Parliamentary 
forces  from  co-operating  with  one  another.  It  was  by  similar 
tactics,  pursued  on  a  far  more  persistent  system,  and  on  a 
larger  scale,  that  Fairfax  and  Cromwell  now  managed  to 
crush  them ;  and  the  disorganization  of  the  Royahsts  rendered 
it  easy.  The  King  continued  to  show  marvellous  activity 
and  undaunted  courage  ;  but  even  the  partial  success  which, 
in  the  preceding  years,  had  generally  followed  his  own  pre- 
sence, now  deserted  him  ;  and  he  found  it  hard  to  maintain 
any  real  discipline,  or  to  rely  upon  co-operation  amongst 
the  various  commanders  in  any  common  plan  of  campaign. 
Divided  counsels ;  large  tracts  of  country  estranged  by  the 
repeated  outrages  of  an  undisciplined  miUtary  horde,  which 
made  no  distinction  between  friends  and  foes  in  their  in- 
discriminate robbery ;  the  anxiety  of  many  to  secure  peace 
on  any  terms ;  above  aU,  the  hopelessness  of  obtaining  the 
necessary  contributions — all  these  were  quickly  wasting  the 
last  remnants  of  hope  for  the  Royahst  cause.  But  the  King 
himself  was  the  last  to  abandon  that  hope. 

The  Parliamentary  forces  gave  him  some  respite,  and 
pursued  a  mistaken  plan  of  campaign,  by  engaging  in  the 
siege  of  Oxford — a  long,  an  almost  hopeless,  and  (even  if 
successful)  not  likely  to  be  a  remunerative,  task.     This  left 


1645]  DEFEAT  AT  NASEBY  265 

the  King,  who  no  longer  remained  at  Oxford,  free  to  move 
about  the  west  and  the  midlands,  and  to  make  new  attempts 
which  would  have  been  impossible  if  the  Parliamentary 
troops  had  been  entirely  relieved  of  the  tedious  and  useless 
business  of  besieging  the  fortified  towns,  and  if  every  effort 
had  been  spent  in  active  movements  through  the  country, 
which  must  eventually  force  the  Eoyalists  to  a  decisive 
battle.  A  success  was  achieved  at  the  end  of  May  by  the 
forces  of  the  King,  in  the  capture  of  Leicester  ;  and  the  high 
hopes  which  were  raised  by  Montrose's  brilhant  campaign 
in  Scotland,  tempted  the  King  to  march  north,  so  as  to 
recover  his  own  influence  in  Yorkshire,  and  perhaps  to 
combine  with  the  Highland  army  under  Montrose.  But 
such  an  attempt  was  hopelessly  belated.  The  Parliamentary 
armies  were  soon  in  full  advance — at  once  to  the  north,  to 
the  midlands,  and  to  the  extreme  west.  The  siege  of 
Oxford  was  abandoned,  and  Charles  found  himself  gradually 
hemmed  in  on  every  side.  Only  a  fortnight  after  the 
seeming  success  at  Leicester,  Cromwell  and  Fauiax  inflicted 
by  far  the  most  damaging  defeat  that  it  had  yet  suffered 
upon  the  King's  army  at  Naseby,  in  the  middle  of  June. 
The  Eoyalist  forces  were  hopelessly  broken,  and  many 
of  Charles's  wisest  followers  were  inclined  to  direct  their 
measures  as  if  they  were  in  view  of  the  inevitable  defeat  of 
their  cause.  Isolated  efforts  were  in  vain ;  but  a  most 
crushing  blow  to  the  King's  hopes  in  the  west  came  in  the 
surrender  of  Bristol  by  Prince  Rupert  on  September  11th.  It 
was  only  two  days  later — on  September  13th — that  Montrose's 
army  was  utterly  defeated  by  Lesley  at  PhiHphaugh.  On 
every  side  the  clouds  were  gathering  close,  and  every  ray 
of  hope  was  sinking  into  darkness.  Nothing  was  left  for 
the  King  and  his  most  faithful  adherents  but  to  hold  fast 
to  their  courage,  to  maintain  their  Standard  as  long  as  possible, 
and  meanwhile,  to  make  such  attempts  as  were  possible  to 


266  DISASTEB  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

achieve  a  comijromise  by  diplomacy,  by  dexterous  manage- 
ment, and  by  appealing  to  those  elements  in  the  various 
warring  parties  amongst  their  foes,  which  seemed  to  offer 
the  best  prospect  of  obtaining  tolerable  terms. 

The  fall  of  Bristol  had  not  only  been  a  crushing  blow  to 
all  his  hopes  ;  for  Charles  it  had  at  last  opened  his  eyes  to 
the  defects  of  his  nephew.  Prince  Rupert,  for  whose  sake  he 
had  long  braved  the  discontent  of  those  adherents  who  were 
jealous  of  Rupert's  imperious  temper  and  undue  favour 
with  the  King.  It  was  not  only  that  Rupert  had  fallen 
short  of  his  own  undertaking  that,  for  four  months  at 
least,  he  could  hold  Bristol  against  the  enemy.  The  King 
knew  that  Rupert  had  been  unduly  ready  to  advise  a  treaty,^ 
on  any  terms  to  be  obtained,  and  he  could  not  but  suspect 
that  his  defence  of  the  town  had  been  half-hearted.  From 
Hereford,  where  he  had  appointed  such  straggling  remnants 
of  the  Royahst  troops  as  could  be  mustered  to  meet  him, 
Charles  wrote  to  Rupert  on  September  14th,  in  words  which 
show  that  the  bitterness  of  disappointed  affection  and  trust 
weighed  even  more  with  him  than  the  loss  of  Bristol. 


^  Only  in  the  previous  month  of  August,  the  King  had  stated  very  plainly 
to  Rupert  his  determination  against  further  concessions,  and  had  shown 
how  resolved  he  was  to  fight  to  the  end,  and  if  need  be,  to  die.  "  As  for  the 
opinion  of  my  business,"  he  wxites,  "  and  your  counsel  thereupon,  if  I  had 
any  other  quarrel  but  the  defence  of  my  religion,  crown,  and  friends,  you 
had  full  reason  for  your  advice.  .  .  .  Speaking  as  to  mere  soldier  or  statesman, 
I  must  say  there  is  no  probability  but  of  my  ruin  ;  but  as  to  Christian,  I 
must  tell  you,  that  God  will  not  suffer  rebels  to  prosper,  or  His  cause  to  be 
overthrown.  ...  I  cannot  flatter  myself  with  expectation  of  good  success 
more  than  this,  to  end  my  days  ^Wth  honour  and  a  good  conscience  ;  which 
obliges  me  to  continue  my  endeavour,  as  not  despairing  that  God  may  in 
due  time  avenge  His  own  cause.  ...  He  that  will  stay  with  me  at  this  time, 
must  expect,  and  resolve,  either  to  die  for  a  good  cause,  or,  which  is  worse] 
to  live  as  miserable  in  the  maintaining  it,  as  the  violence  of  insulting  rebels 
can  make  him.  .  .  .  Having  plainly  told  you  my  positive  resolutions,  which, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  I  will  not  alter,  they  being  neither  lightly  nor  suddenly 
grounded,  I  earnestly  desire  you  not  in  any  ways  to  "hearken  after 
treaties"  (History  of  Rebellion,  ix.  70).  These  are  solemn  words,  spoken 
from  the  heart  to  one  whom  Charles  held  most  dear  ;  and  the  suspicion  that 
they  had  been  deliberately  disregarded  was  enough  to  stir  his  bitterest 
indignation. 


1645]  SURRENDER  OF  BRISTOL  267 

"  Nephew,"  he  wrote,  "  though  the  loss  of  Bristol  be  a 
great  blow  to  me,  yet  your  surrendering  it  as  you  did  is  of 
so  much  affliction  to  me,  that  it  makes  me  not  only  forget 
the  consideration  of  that  place,  but  is  likewise  the  greatest 
trial  of  my  constancy  that  hath  yet  befallen  me  ;  for  what 
is  to  be  done,  when  one  that  is  so  near  me  as  you  are,  both 
in  blood  and  friendship,  submitted  himself  to  so  mean  an 
action  ?  .  .  .  I  must  remember  you  of  your  letter  of  August 
12,  whereby  you  assured  me  that,  if  no  mutiny  happened, 
you  would  keep  Bristol  for  four  months.  Did  you  keep  it 
for  four  days  ?     Was  there  anything  like  a  mutiny  ?  " 

He  bids  him  withdraw  beyond  seas,  and  sends  him  a  pass 
for  the  purpose  ;  and  ends  with  the  words  :  "  I  shall  have  no 
greater  joy  in  a  victory  than  a  just  occasion  without  blushing 
to  assure  you  of  my  being  Your  loving  uncle,  and  most 
faithful  friend,  C.R." 

But  Charles  knew  well,  however  he  might  attempt  to 
assume  an  appearance  of  courage  to  those  around  him,  that 
the  hope  of  victory  in  the  field  was  now  gone.  It  was  not 
long  before  some  of  those  whose  waywardness  and  restlessness 
of  counsel,  as  with  Digby,  or  whose  undisciplined  arrogance 
and  wanton  profligacy,  as  with  Goring,  had  done  such  injury 
to  the  cause,  found  means  of  withdrawing  from  the  threaten- 
ing danger.  Digby  escaped  first  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and 
thence  to  Ireland.  Goring  had  already  betaken  himself  to 
France.  Rupert  again  after  an  interval  presented  himself 
to  the  King,  and  perhaps  his  presence  once  more  persuaded 
Charles  "  to  hearken  after  treaties."  More  than  once  Charles 
seems  to  have  summoned  Hyde  to  attend  him,^  but  either 
the  unwillingness  of  the  Prince  to  spare  him,  or  his  now 
frequently  recurring  enemy,  the  gout,  had  prevented  him  from 
obeying  the  summons.  He  might,  had  his  companionship 
been  possible,  have  held  the  King  more  firmly  to  his  purpose. 

'  Tn  June,  at  Hereford  (see  letter  from  Hyde  to  Nicholas  of  June  25),  and 
later  at  Raglan,  in  August  (Hid.  of  Rebellion,  ix.  73). 


268  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

After  five  months  of  constant  wanderings,  amidst  ever- 
increasing  disasters  in  the  field,  from  Naseby  in  June,  to 
November,  Charles  once  more  returned  to  Oxford,  for  the  last 
time.  Two  courses,  not  consistent,  and  not  steadily  pursued, 
now  occupied  all  his  efforts.  A  last  attempt  was  to  be  made 
to  rally  such  forces  as  were  at  his  disposal ;  vain  propositions 
were  to  be  made  to  the  Parliament  for  peace ;  and,  failing 
these,  new  alliances  were  to  be  sought.  When  he  first 
returned  to  Oxford,  Charles  was  in  no  mind  to  yield  to  those 
who  would  have  him  compromise  with  his  conscience,  and 
he  was  evidently  suspicious  of  those  who  had  been  willing 
to  submit  to  degrading  terms.  Hyde  was  content  to  wait 
patiently  for  the  result  of  the  evident  divisions  amongst  their 
foes,  and  would  have  prevented  any  surrender  of  principle. 
Whether  he  could  have  materially  altered  the  course  of  affairs, 
had  he  been  with  the  King  throughout,  must  remain  an  in- 
soluble problem. 

In  the  west,  a  last  effort,  however  hopeless,  might  be 
made.  For  this,  the  one  most  incorrupt  spirit  amongst  all 
the  RoyaHsts  was  chosen ;  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  the 
task,  however  certain  the  disaster.  In  January  it  was  decided 
that  Lord  Hopton  should  take  the  whole  command  upon 
him.  With  him,  at  least,  there  would  be  no  selfish  greed  or 
ambition,  and  justice  would  be  meted  out  to  all  with  no 
thought  of  gain  or  self-aggrandisement. 

"  It  was  a  heavy  imposition,  I  confess,"  says  Hyde,  "  to 
which  nothing  but  the  most  abstracted  duty  and  obedience 
could  have  submitted."  ^  Hopton  confessed  to  the  Prince 
that  "  he  could  not  obey  his  highness  at  this  time  without 
resolving  to  lose  his  honour,  which  he  knew  he  must,  but 
since  his  highness  thought  it  necessary  to  command  him, 
he  was  ready  to  obey  him  with  the  loss  of  his  honour."  As 
usual,   Grenville  raised  a  punctiHo  of    personal  prestige  ; 

'  Rebellion,  ix.  135. 


1646]  DESTINATION   OF   THE   PEINCE  269 

"  He  would  not  consent  to  be  commanded  by  Lord  Hopton." 
The  limits  of  patience  with  such  degrading  selfishness  were 
exhausted  ;  Grenville  was  placed  in  custody  at  Launceston, 
and  a  few  days  later  was  permitted  "  to  transport  himself 
beyond  the  seas."  Lord  Wentworth  raised  similar  scruples  ; 
but  was  told  by  the  Prince  that  his  orders  were  not  to  be 
scanned  ;  he  might  submit  or  no  ;  but  must  answer  directly. 
He  made  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and  did  as  he  was  told.  Lord 
Capel  joined  himself  to  Hopton's  chivalrous  attempt.  Hyde 
and  Colepepper  were  left  with  the  Prince,  watching  from 
day  to  day  the  hour  when  the  toils  might  close  round  them 
so  closely  as  to  make  escape  from  England  a  necessity.  By 
letters  in  August,  in  September,  in  November,  and  in 
December,  Charles  had  impressed  upon  the  Council  the  neces- 
sity of  being  in  readiness  to  carry  the  Prince  either  to  Den- 
mark or  to  France.  The  plan  was  not  to  be  precipitate ;  but, 
above  all,  the  danger  of  his  falhng  into  the  hands  of  the 
rebels  was  to  be  guarded  against.  Charles  felt  that  his  last 
card  would  be  played  if  not  he  only,  but  the  heir  to  his  crown, 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  those  who  laboured  to  annihilate 
his  power.  Now,  on  February  5th,  while  he  admitted  the 
soundness  of  the  reasons  for  delay  which  had  hitherto 
operated,  and  agreed  that  the  Prince  "  was  not  to  go  until 
there  be  an  evident  necessity,"  he  at  the  same  time  re- 
iterated his  commands  that  there  should  be  no  delay  if  the 
hazard  were  visible. 

The  Prince,  he  had  always  directed,  was  to  be  subject 
to  the  Queen's  commands  in  all  things  except  religion,  where 
he  was  to  be  guided  by  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury.^  Hyde  still 
dishked  the  thought  of  sending  the  Prince  to  France,  which 
he  knew  would  be  distasteful  to  the  nation,  and  would 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Queen  in  carrying  out  schemes 
which  he  deemed  fatal  to  the  ultimate  success  of  the  Royal 

1  Dr.  Duppa,  formerly  the  Prince's  tutor. 


270  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

cause.  But  he  had  at  last  the  definite  commands  of  the 
King  for  the  speedy  departure  of  the  Prince ;  and  he  could 
no  longer  doubt  that  the  danger  of  capture  was  imminent. 
He  found  a  medium  course.  Scilly  was  a  part  of  Cornwall, 
and  was  technically  in  England;  there  for  a  time  at  least 
the  Prince  might  await  events ;  and  if  further  danger 
threatened,  he  might  easily  be  carried  over  to  Jersey,  still 
within  the  Kingdom,  but  not  under  the  sway  of  Parliament. 
On  March  2nd,  Hyde  and  his  charge  set  sail  for  Scilly.  Hopton 
found  his  httle  army  no  longer  amenable  to  discipline,  and 
melting  away  before  his  eyes.  It  was  useless  to  prolong  the 
struggle.  He  gave  his  mutinous  subordinates  leave  to 
treat ;  and  himself  joined  the  Prince  in  Scilly.  Cornwall 
was  virtually  abandoned  to  the  enemy. 

There  remained  the  alternatives  of  combination  with 
some  section  of  the  rebels,  and  the  formation  of  new  aUiances  ; 
and  at  these,  as  Hyde  had  little  to  do  with  them,  we  must 
glance  very  briefly.     It  is  clear  that  he  had  httle  hope  from 
any  such  schemes,  and  fully  reahzed  the  dangers  to  which 
they  were  liable.     There  was  first  the  possibihty  of  an  alliance 
with  the  Scots.     Hyde  himself  had  found  in  Cornwall  one 
who  professed  himself  ready  to  place  his  services  at  the  King's 
disposal  for  the  purpose.     The  Duke  of  Hamilton  had  been 
a  prisoner  at  Pendennis  Castle  ever  since  his  arrest  at  Oxford. 
He  had  the  treatment  suitable  to  his  rank,  and  was  kept 
under  no  very  severe  conditions  ;   but  he  chafed  at  his  en- 
forced inaction.     When  the  Prince  visited  the  Castle,  the 
Duke  desired  to  have  access  to  him,  and  he  managed  to  have 
several  long  colloquies  with  Hyde.     He  represented  how 
unfounded  were  the  suspicions  against  him,  and  how  glad 
he  would  be  to  assist  the  King  against  his  enemies.     His 
influence  in  Scotland  was  enormous  ;   he  was  not  unwilling 
to  pit  himself  against  Argyle,  and  he  was  ready  to  co-operate 
even  with  his  old  enemy  Montrose.     But  if  he  were  to  exert 


JAMES    HAMILTON,    FIRST    DUKE    OF    HAMILTON.- 

{From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke,  in  the  collection  of  the  Duke  of 

Hamilton.) 


1646]      HYDE  AND  THE  PRINCE  IN  SCILLY         271 

his  influence  to  any  purpose,  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
that  he  should  be  set  at  liberty,  and  that  his  presence  in 
Scotland  should  attest  the  reality  of  his  resolution  to  support 
the  King,  and  should  animate  his  followers  with  the  same 
desire.  Hyde  trusted  neither  the  Duke  himself,  nor  the 
nation  to  which  he  belonged.  He  was  courteous,  but  frankly 
avowed  that  he  could  give  no  advice  in  favour  of  the  Duke's 
proposals.  If  the  Duke  desired  to  help  the  King  he  must 
give  an  earnest  of  that  desire  by  writing  to  his  adherents 
in  Scotland.  Until  that  was  done,  he  could  not  advise  that 
a  freedom,  which  he  might  easily  misuse,  should  be  granted. 
Upon  others  who  were  in  attendance  on  the  Prince,  the  Duke 
made  more  impression  ;  but  Hyde  and  the  Council  retained 
their  suspicions.  Plainly  Hyde  disliked,  not  the  agent  only, 
but  the  scheme  of  the  alliance  which  he  offered.  At  the  best, 
it  ofl'ered  hopes  that  could  be  realized  only  by  a  betrayal 
of  the  Church,  from  which  Hyde  shrank  as  strongly  as 
the  King.  Matters  thus  drifted  on.  The  Duke  was  set 
free  when  Pendennis  Castle  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Par- 
liament. He  made  his  way  to  London  ;  and  hved — as 
Hyde  is  fain  to  admit — to  show  the  sincerity  of  his  new- 
found loyalty,  and  to  give  his  life  in  proof  of  his  attachment 
to  the  RoyaUst  cause. 

The  first  effort  on  the  part  of  the  King,  which,  bold  as  it 
was,  was  clearly  only  an  effort  of  despair,  was  to  propose  a 
personal  treaty  in  London.  He  was  ready  to  come  himself 
to  treat  with  the  Parliament  at  Westminster,  attended  by 
a  retinue  restricted  to  three  hundred.  The  hazard  he  ran, 
in  spite  of  any  safe  conduct  which  the  Parliament  could 
give,  was  evident.  The  only  hope  was  that  his  presence 
might  animate  those  who  secretly  detested  the  new  tyranny, 
and  might  stimulate  the  distrust  that  was  rife  between 
sections  which  were  as  yet  fairly  evenly  balanced.  That 
it  should  lead  to  any  compromise  which  would  be  consistent 


272  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

with  the  retention  of  any  real  authority  in  the  Crown  was 
obviously  hopeless. 

The  next  plan  was  the  project  of  an  alliance  with  the 
Independents,  based  upon  their  deep-rooted  hatred  of  the 
Presbyterians,  whose  rigid  intolerance  excluded  all  thought 
of  compromise  with  any  other  form  of  religion  than  that  estab- 
lished by  the  Covenant.  Charles's  hopes  of  any  such  alliance 
were  based  only  upon  his  ignorance  of  their  real  aims,  and 
of  the  dominant  ambitions  of  those  like  Vane,  Cromwell,  and 
Ireton,  who  swayed  their  counsels.  "  They  were  a  faction 
newly  grown  up,  and  with  which  he  was  utterly  un- 
acquainted." ^  He  could  see  in  their  jealousy  of  the  Presby- 
terians some  hope  for  the  Church  ;  but  he  did  not  measure 
the  extent  to  which  they  were  prepared  to  go  in  revolution 
in  the  State.  It  was  his  fixed  conviction  that  "  nothing 
was  more  impossible  than  that  the  English  nation  should 
submit  to  any  other  than  monarchical  government."  2  To 
Hyde  any  such  alliance  seemed  little  else  than  a  chimera. 

Another,  and  an  even  more  dangerous  device,  was  that 
of  procuring  help  from  Ireland.  If  terms  of  settlement 
could  be  made  with  the  rebels  there,  abundant  troops 
might  be  set  free  to  aid  the  Royalists'  cause  in  England,  and 
hopes  might  be  vaguely  cherished  of  drawing  assistance 
even  from  those,  in  a  pacified  Ireland,  who  had  previously  been 
looked  upon  only  as  irreconcilable  foes.  How  far  such  hopes 
took  shape  in  any  deliberate  scheme  can  probably  never  be 
settled.  That  Charles  ever  conceived  those  extravagant 
schemes  attributed  to  him,  in  the  frenzy  of  partisanship, 
by  the  Parliamentary  leaders;  of  crushing  the  Parhament 
and  re-establishing  Episcopacy  in  close  aUiance  with  Papacy, 
must  be  absolutely  dismissed  by  any  sane  historian.  But, 
short  of  this,  how  far  he  was  prepared  to  go  in  order  to  pro- 
duce pacification  by  granting  a  certain  measure  of  toleration 

I   Rebellion,  ix.  167,  '  Ibid. 


1646]  DEALINGS   WITH   IRISH  REBELS  273 

to  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  for 
the  very  simple  reason  that  he  himself  probably  formed  no 
very  definite  scheme.  To  balance  phrase  against  phrase 
in  a  long  series  of  tangled  transactions,  and  upon  such  nice 
calculations  to  estabhsh  charges  of  bad  faith,  is  only  to  waste 
time,  and  totally  to  misconceive  the  rough  logic  that  sways 
human  affairs  amidst  the  clash  of  arms,  and  the  desperate 
expedients  of  a  civil  war.  Such  matters  are  not  to  be  poised 
with  the  delicate  precision  of  a  legal  document.  We  must 
frame  our  judgment  upon  a  broad  survey  of  the  facts.  That 
the  King  contemplated  any  compromise  with  Roman 
Catholicism  as  a  State  religion  is  absurd.  It  was  against 
all  his  strongest  convictions  and  predilections.^  But  he  may 
well  have  perceived — what  it  was  the  evil  genius  of  England 
that  prevented  the  nation  at  large  from  perceiving — that 
a  certain  measure  of  toleration  for  that  religion  in  Ireland 
was  rendered  inevitable  by  the  logic  of  facts  and  the  irre- 
futable dictates  of  humanity,  which  transcend  the  most 
cherished  prejudices,  and  impress  themselves  even  upon  the 
most  unwilling  consciences.  In  the  secret  counsels  of  destiny 
it  was  fated  that  they  would,  to  the  immeasurable  detriment 
of  both  countries,  take  long  to  translate  themselves  into 
actual  fact ;  but  that  Charles  should  have  perceived  them, 
even  though  it  was  under  the  pressure  of  his  own  accumulating 
difficulties,  and  perceived  them  perhaps  more  fully  than  he 
himself  recognized,  is  not  a  matter  of  blame  to  him.  It  is 
quite  possible  that,  in  his  instructions  to  Glamorgan,'*^  he 

'  "  As  for  the  Irish,"  he  says  in  the  letter  to  Prince  Rupert,  of  August, 
1645,  "  I  assure  you  they  shall  not  cheat  me  ;  but  it  is  possible  they  may 
cozen  themselves  ;  for,  be  assured,  what  I  have  refused  to  the  English,  I 
will  not  grant  to  the  Irish  rebels  "  {Hist.  0/  Rebellion,  ix.  70). 

-  Hyde  is  strangely  silent  on  the  matter  in  his  History,  and  it  is  not 
unfair  to  infer  that  he  was  nervous  as  to  its  effects  and  suspicious  as  to  its 
bearings.  He  writes  from  Jersey,  in  1647,  to  Nicholas  :  "A  King  may  be 
gracious  to  his  Catholic  subjects,  and  be  \villing  by  any  means  to  uiaite  them 
to  his  service,  without  any  immoderate  inclination  to  their  opinions.  Yet 
I  must  tell  you  I  care  not  how  little  I  say  on  that  business  of  Ireland,  since 

VOL.   I.  T 


274  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

made  concessions  to  this  tendency,  involving  dangers  more 
serious,  and  surrenders  of  principle  more  far-reaching,  than 
he  knew  himself.  Necessity  is  a  hard  master.  Glamorgan  ^ 
undoubtedly  was  tempted  to  go  beyond  his  instructions, 
under  pressure  from  the  Papal  nuncio,  and  through  the 
stubbornness  of  the  Irish  rebels.  Misunderstanding  might 
easily  arise  amidst  such  desperate  straits,  and  phrases  might 
perhaps  creep  in  that  had  a  semblance  of  bad  faith  and  shifty 
policy.  But  a  pacification  was  indubitably  necessary  if  it 
could  be  attained ;  and  we,  who  recognize  how  fully,  how 
absolutely,  just  such  toleration  was,  according  to  the  com- 
placent superiority  of  a  more  modern  intelligence,  must  not 
be  in  haste  to  condemn  what  seemed  to  concede  it  with  undue 
precipitancy,  under  the  pressure  of  imperious  necessity. 

But  undoubtedly  such  concessions  were  out  of  harmony 
with  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  time,  and  we  need  not  be 
surprised  that  Hyde  was  doubtful  about  them,  and  felt  that 
they  were  dangerous  to  the  best  interests  of  the  King  himself. 

those  strange  powers  and  instructions  given  to  your  favourite,  Glamorgan, 

which  appear  to  me  so  inexcusable  in  justice,  piety,  and  prudence ;   and  I 

fear  that  there  is  much  in  that  transaction  of  Ireland,  both  before  and  since, 

that  you  and  I  were  never  thought  wise  enough  to  be  advised  with  in.  .  .  . 

Those  stratagems  have  given  me  more  sad  hours  than  all  the  misfortunes 

in  war  which  have  befallen  the  King,  and  look  like  the  effects  of  God's  anger 

towards  us  "  (Clarendon,  State  Papers,  ii.  337).     But  those  who  blame  the 

King  most  severely,  and  dwell  on  his  minister's  condemnation  as  conclusive 

of  Charles's  wrongdoing,  must  remember  that  Hyde  spoke  as  one  to  whom 

the  merits  of  universal  toleration  were  not  apparent,  and  whose  evidence 

thev  as  champions  of  toleration, are  not  entitled  to  call  in  their  own  support. 

"' '  Edward  Somerset  was  the  son  of  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  and  was  born 

in  1601.     In  his  earlier  years  he  was  known  as  Lord  Herbert,  but  was  in 

1644  created  Earl  of  Glamorgan,  and  received  ample  powers  as  military 

commander  for  the  suppression  of  the  Irish  Rebellion,  with  lavish  promises 

of  reward  for  success.     How  far  his  commission  went,  and  whether  he 

exceeded  it,  in  his  concessions  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  cannot  be  pronounced 

with  certainty  ;  but  he  was  disavowed  by  the  King,  and,  at  the  same  time, 

suffered  severely  from  the  Parliament.     His  estates  were  sequestered,  and 

Worcester  House,  his  London  mansion,  was  occupied  by  Cromwell.     In 

1646  he  succeeded  his  father,  who  had  been  created  Marquis  of  Worcester. 

He  returned  from  exile  at  the  Restoration,  and  survived  till  1667,  but  his 

later  life  was  occupied  with  mechanical  pursuits,  in  which  he  attained 

proficiency,  a  claim  having  even  been  advanced  for  him,  as  the  first  inventor 

of  a  steam  engine. 


1646]  MEDIATION   OF  FRANCE  275 

They  were  favoured  by  the  Queen  and  her  adherents,  and 
this  was,  in  itself,  enough  to  condemn  them  in  Hyde's  eyes, 
as  he  knew  how  httle  trust  was  to  be  placed  in  that  faction, 
and  how  hopelessly  it  was  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
general  drift  of  Enghsh  thought.  It  was  another  sign  of 
that  weakness  which  Hyde  thought  fatal  to  the  best  hopes 
of  the  Crown/  Patience  and  firmness,  with  a  consistent 
policy,  were,  in  his  eyes,  the  only  stand-by  ;  but  they  would 
probably  suffice  only  to  preserve  the  King's  conscience  and 
his  good  name — not  his  power  and  his  royal  dignit3\ 

The  next  device  was  that  of  an  alliance  with  the  Scots 
by  the  mediation  of  France.  We  have  already  seen  how 
Hyde  had  received  the  overtures  from  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  ; 
and  his  dislike  of  this  alliance  was  in  accordance  with  the 
views  he  had  consistently  held  as  to  the  hopelessness  of  any 
secure  confederacy  based  upon  concessions  to  Presbyterianism 
which  he  considered  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  King's  con- 
scientious belief,  and  with  the  deep-rooted  essential  adherence 
of  the  Enghsh  nation  to  its  own  Church.  But  since  the  death 
of  Richeheu  and  Louis  XIII,  the  influence  of  Queen  Henrietta 
had  greatly  increased  at  the  Court  of  France.  Mazarin, 
whose  power  was  now  secure,  affected  to  dread  the  growing 
domination  of  Parliament,  and  the  Queen-Mother  was  at 
least  friendly  to  Queen  Henrietta.  A  means  of  reconciliation 
now  appeared  to  offer  through  concessions  to  the  Scottish 
Presbyterians  which  would  not  militate  against  the  hopes 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  might  indeed  help  them,  by 
depressing  the  influence  of  Anglican  Episcopacy.  To  Henrietta 
the  difference  between  Presbyterianism  and  Anglican  Episco- 

'  Hyde's  general  view  as  to  concessions  is  shortly  and  pithily  expressed 
by  him  in  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Berkeley  (printed  in  vol.  iii.  p.  47  of.  Lister's 
Life).  "  To  my  understanding  I  must  still  say  the  question  is  not,  nor  of 
a  long  time  hath  been,  whether  he  should  perish  with  all  his  regalities,  or, 
by  partmg  with  some,  preserve  himseH  and  the  rest .  .  .  but  whether  he  will 
perish  before  he  parts  with  them  ...  or  perish  after  he  hath  parted  with 
them." 


276  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

pacy  was  of  little  importance,  and  she  would  not  have  been 
unwilling  that  the  leanings  of  the  Presbyterians  towards  the 
monarchy  should  be  made  use  of  for  the  restoration  of  the 
King's  civil  prerogative,  at  the  price  of  concessions  to  their 
religious  views.  With  a  strange  perversity,  she  refused  to  recog- 
nize the  attachment  of  the  King  to  the  Church,  for  which  he 
was  prepared  to  sacrij&ce  not  his  prerogative  only,  but  his  life. 
By  her  contrivance,  new  steps  were  taken  to  patch  up  an 
agreement  which  was  doomed  to  failure.  A  new  Ambassador, 
Montreuil,  was  despatched  to  England,  nominally  to  enter  into 
negotiations  between  the  Court  of  France  and  the  Parliament, 
but  in  reahty  to  promote  some  dealings  with  the  Scots, 
pledging  the  influence  of  France  to  secure  the  performance 
of  mutual  engagements  between  the  King  and  the  Presby- 
terians. From  the  first  it  was  evident  that  no  settlement 
would  commend  itself  to  the  Scots  which  did  not  guarantee 
the  establishment  of  Presbyterianism  in  England.  This 
seemed  to  the  Queen  and  her  advisers  a  small  price  to  pay 
for  an  aUiance  which  must  break  the  power  of  Parliament. 
But  equally  from  the  first,  it  was  plain  that  no  such  con- 
cession could  be  obtained  from  the  King  ;  and  Hyde  looked 
with  misgiving  upon  a  scheme  which  would  surrender  what 
he  regarded  as  the  most  essential  point  of  Royalist  policy, 
and  which  would  effectually  flout  and  discourage  the  deep- 
rooted  sympathy  with  the  national  Church  which  Hyde  re- 
garded as  the  means  certain,  sooner  or  later,  to  bring  the 
national  aspirations  into  line  with  the  policy  of  the  Crown. 
When  Montreuil  laid  his  proposals  before  the  King,  he  was 
definitely  informed  that  no  such  concession  to  the  Pres- 
byterian demands  could  be  made.  The  promise  of  the 
Queen  was  adduced  against  this  refusal,  and  her  own  written 
words  were  sufficient  proof  of  that  promise.  In  these  words, 
says  Hyde,  "  there  were  such  expressions  concerning  religion 
as  nothing  pleased  the  King,  and  made  him  look  upon  that 


1646]  LAST   EFFORTS   IN   THE   FIELD  277 

negotiation  as  rather  a  conspiracy  against  the  Church 
between  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Presbyterians  than 
as  an  expedient  for  his  restoration  or  preservation."  It  in- 
creased the  suspicions  which  he  already  felt  of  some  of  his 
adherents,  and  taught  him  what  dangers  were  to  be  faced  if 
the  Prince  were  conveyed  to  France,  and  became  subject  to 
such  pernicious  counsellors. 

The  insuperable  difficulties  which  stood  in  the  way  of  any 
such  agreement  were  not  allowed  to  put  an  end  to  what  all 
might  judge  as  a  possible,  and  which  some  hailed  as  a  favour- 
able, opportunity  for  reviving  hopes  for  the  King's  cause. 
We  can  imagine  the  difficulties  of  the  adroit  French  diplo- 
matist in  his  efforts  to  bring  about  an  agreement  between 
the  dour  and  doughty  champions  of  militant  Presbyterianism 
and  the  conscientious  scruples  of  the  King.  Each  seemed, 
doubtless,  to  him  to  be  contending  for  varieties  in  heresy 
which  he  held  of  infinitesimal  moment,  and  to  be  abandoning 
the  stupendous  secular  objects  which  both  professed  to  have 
at  heart.  By  not  conceding  the  demands  of  Presbyterianism, 
Charles  was  abandoning  his  Crown  ;  by  insisting  on  their 
special  brand  of  heresy  the  Scots  were  paving  the  way  for 
their  own  subjection  to  the  Independents  of  the  army. 
Between  negotiators  who  would  emperil  so  much  for  what 
he  deemed  so  little,  the  dexterities  of  the  French  diplomat 
laboured  in  vain. 

If  diplomacy  could  do  little,  armed  resistance  could  do 
still  less  for  the  Royalist  cause.  Lord  Astley  gathered  a 
feeble  force  from  the  remaining  garrisons  of  the  west,  and 
marched  from  Worcester  to  Oxford  to  meet  the  King.  There 
was  no  time  for  conveying  orders  or  making  secure  arrange- 
ments for  a  rendezvous.  The  two  bodies  missed  one  another, 
and  at  Stow-on-the-Wold,  Astley  was  attacked  by  a  far 
superior  force.  Resistance  was  impossible  ;  and  Astley  had 
nothing  for  it  but  to  surrender  himself  as  prisoner.     He 


278  DISASTER  TO  THE  ROYAL  CAUSE  [chap,  x 

admitted  to  his  captors  that  the  straggle  was  over.  "  You 
have  now  done  your  work,"  he  told  them,  "  and  may 
go  play,  unless  you  will  fall  out  among  yourselves."  ^ 
"  The  few  that  escaped  were  so  scattered  and  dispersed,  that 
they  never  came  together  again,  nor  did  there  remain,  from 
that  minute,  any  possibility  for  the  King  to  draw  any  other 
troops  together  in  the  field."  ^ 

'  Rush  worth,  vi.  141.     The  date  was  March  22,  164f. 
"^  Rebellion,  ix.  (at  end). 


CHAPTEE  XI 

DEFEAT  OP  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE 

When  Hyde  quitted  England  in  1 646  for  what  was  destined  to 
be  a  fourteen  years'  banishment,  the  outlook  for  the  King  was 
already  poor  enough.  There  were,  as  Hyde  himself  puts  it, 
"  no  seeds  of  hope  left."  The  negotiations  with  the  Scots 
were  still  proceeding ;  but  from  them  Hyde  presaged  little 
good  ;  and  the  result  showed  how  true  were  his  forebodings. 
Had  the  King  been  able,  by  any  possible  device,  to  draw 
five  thousand  men  together,  he  would  rather,  so  Hyde  tells 
us,^  have  perished  in  a  hopeless  attempt  upon  the  Parlia- 
mentary forces  than  have  waited  for  any  conditions  that 
were  likely  to  be  made  after  the  long-drawn  attempts  at  a 
treaty.  It  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  it  might  be  possible  to 
bring  such  a  number  together,  and  it  was  a  vain  hope  of 
French  assistance  to  this  extent,  which  had  been  delusively 
held  out,  that  had  kept  the  Prince  from  sailing  to  Scilly  till 
Fairfax  was  within  twenty  miles  of  him.  But  even  this 
delusive  prospect,  like  other  hopes  from  France,  was  now 
entirely  dispelled. 

The  Prince  and  his  companions — including  Hopton  and 
Capel,  who  soon  joined  Hyde  and  Colepepper — were  far  from 
being  safe  at  Scilly.  The  defences  were  scanty.  Ships  of 
the  Parliamentary  fleet  were  cruising  in  the  neighbourhood  ; 
and  the  soldiers  upon  whose  help  the  little  Court  had  to 
depend,  were  Cornishmen,  and  could  not  be  trusted  to  hold 

'  Rebellion,  x.  2. 


280  DEFEAT  OF  THE  ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

out  long  after  Cornwall  surrendered  to  Fairfax,  which  must 
be  a  matter  of  weeks,  if  not  of  days.  The  suppHes  were  short, 
and  there  was  difficulty  in  obtaining  means  of  subsistence. 
Clearly  they,  as  guardians  of  the  Prince's  safety,  could  make 
no  long  stay  there.  By  the  middle  of  April  they  managed 
to  elude  the  Parhament's  ships  of  war,  and  landed  safely 
in  Jersey.  Just  before  they  started,  there  had  been  twenty- 
seven  or  twenty-eight  of  these  ships  compassing  the  island, 
only  the  dispersal  of  which  by  an  opportune  storm  gave  the 
fugitives  the  chance  they  desired.  While  their  escape  was 
still  doubtful,  the  Prince  produced  a  letter  from  the  King, 
which  had  been  written  just  before  the  fatal  blow  of  Naseby, 
and  which  he  had  been  enjoined  to  keep  to  himself  until  the 
last  crisis  should  arrive.  In  it  Charles  bade  his  son  never, 
in  the  case  of  the  King  being  taken  prisoner,  to  yield  to 
any  condition  dishonourable,  unsafe  for  himself,  or  derogatory 
to  the  royal  authority,  in  the  vain  hope  of  saving  his  father's 
life. 

"  To  save  my  life  by  complying  with  them,"  wrote  the 
King, "  would  make  me  end  my  days  with  torture,  and  disquiet 
of  mind,  not  giving  you  any  blessing,  and  cursing  all  the  rest 
who  are  consenting  to  it.  But  your  constancy  will  make 
me  die  cheerfully,  praising  God  for  giving  me  so  gallant  a 
son,  and  heaping  my  blessings  on  you." 

Apprized  of  this  letter,  the  Council  could  have  no  alter- 
native but  to  remove  the  Prince  from  the  clutches  of  the 
rebels.  The  choice  lay  between  Jersey  and  France ;  and 
the  objections  to  France  were,  in  the  minds  of  Hyde  and  his 
fellow-councillors,  insuperable.  Jersey  was  safe  at  least 
from  any  present  attempt,  and  it  had  the  incontestable 
advantage  of  being  technically  within  the  Kingdom  of 
England.  The  King's  adherents  could  still  rest  assured  that 
the  fate  of  the  heir  to  the  Crown  was  not  in  foreign  hands. 
The  Queen  was  anxious,  as  she  had  always  been,  that  his 


1646]  SCHEMES  AS   TO   THE   PRINCE  281 

destination  should  be  France.  But  she  knew  the  objections 
of  the  Council ;  and  in  a  letter  of  April  5th,  she  only  insisted 
that  he  should  be  removed  to  Jersey,  pledging  the  faith  of 
the  Queen  Regent  of  France,  that  should  he  be  compelled 
to  put  into  a  French  port,  he  should  receive  a  good  re- 
ception there.  In  her  heart,  she  wished  Jersey  only  to  be 
a  stage  on  his  journey  to  France. 

Colepepper  repaired  to  France  for  further  conference  with 
the  Queen  :  and  on  his  return  Hyde  found  that  he  had  been 
largely  converted  to  the  views  of  the  Queen  and  her  Court. 
In  Jermyn,  Queen  Henrietta  had  one  who  ardently  furthered 
her  views ;  and  from  this  time  Hyde,  in  conjunction  with  Hop- 
ton  and  Capel,  had  a  long  struggle  against  what  they  rightly 
deemed  to  be  the  fatal  pohcy  of  the  Queen,  backed  up  by 
Jermyn  and  Colepepper.  Soon  after,  Jermyn  communicated 
to  them  a  letter  from  the  King,  of  March  22nd,  which  assumed 
that  the  Prince  was  now  with  his  mother  in  France,  and 
which  bade  him  be  guided  by  her  in  all  things,  except  in  regard 
to  the  vital  matter  of  religion.  Hyde  rightly  feared  that 
the  exception  was  one  too  large  to  be  very  carefully  observed  ; 
and  he  was  well  aware  that  its  breach  would  have  dissolved 
for  ever  the  hopes  of  a  Royalist  revival. 

MeanwhOe,  a  diversion  of  a  new  kind  arose  from  the 
ever-active  brain,  and  sanguine  temperament,  of  Digby.  We 
have  seen  already  how  he  had  escaped,  after  defeat  in  the 
field,  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  thence  to  Ireland  ;  and  while 
Capel  and  Colepepper  ^  were  dispatched  on  a  mission  to  the 
Queen,  to  explain  the  doubts  of  the  Council,  a  new  scheme 
was  started  by  Digby.  He  had  conceived  vast  hopes  of 
efficacious  assistance  to  the  Royal  cause  from  Ireland.  If 
only  the  Prince  were  there,  all  factions  would  be  reduced  ; 
his  English  adherents  would  flock  to  his  standard  ;  the  Irish 

*  Colepepper  could  hardly  be  counted  as  a  faithful  exponent  of  views 
with  ^vhich  he  was  not  now  in  sympathy. 


282  DEFEAT   OF   THE   EOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

rebels  would  return  to  their  allegiance  ;  the  papal  nuncio 
would  abate  his  extravagant  pretensions.  By  a  sort  of  happy 
magic  all  that  Glamorgan's  unwise  concessions  had  failed  to 
achieve  was  to  be  accomplished  without  difficulty.  To  this 
end  Digby  arrived  at  Scilly,  full  of  his  new  scheme,  but  only 
to  find  that  the  Prince  had  just  gone  to  Jersey,  and  there 
he  followed  him.  Even  the  delay  involved  in  considering 
so  novel  an  expedient  only  served  to  make  Digby  the  more 
impatient,  and  in  no  way  lessened  his  sanguine  faith  in  his 
own  scheme.  The  Prince  explained  that  he  must  await 
the  return  of  Capel  and  Colepepper,  and  further  orders  from 
the  King.  Digby  fretted  at  the  want  of  enterprise  that 
would  not  immediately  embrace  such  an  opportunity.  He 
was  sure  he  could  persuade  the  Queen  ;  delay  would  only 
dissipate  the  bright  hopes  that  awaited  them  in  Ireland. 
He  had  further  talk  "  with  one  of  the  privy  council,"  whom 
we  may  safely  take  to  be  Hyde — and  while  he  lamented 
the  loss  of  this  occasion,  he  inveighed  with  the  utmost  bitter- 
ness, in  terms  no  doubt  intended  to  capture  Hyde's  confidence, 
against  any  scheme  of  sending  the  Prince  to  France.^  So 
strongly  did  he  feel  the  ruin  such  a  scheme  involved,  that 
he  declared  himself  ready  to  entice  the  Prince  on  board  his 
frigate,  and  then  sail  with  him  to  Ireland,  whether  with  his 
will  or  no.  Hyde  condemned  any  such  scheme,  and  showed 
that  he  was  determined  to  prevent  it.  But  opposition  never 
daunted  Digby,  and  he  was  confident  that  by  going  to 
France,  he  would  soon  persuade  the  Queen  to  abandon  her 
own  ideas  and  join  cordially  in  his  own. 

"  Transported  with  this  happy  auguration,  he  left 
Jersey  ;  leaving  at  the  same  time  his  two  ships,  and  half 
a  dozen  gentlemen  of  quality  (who  upon  his  desires  and 

'  At  this  time  Digby  was  as  keenly  alive  as  Hyde  to  the  dangers  of  any 
tampering  with  Roman  Catholicism.  We  shall  see,  at  a  later  day,  how  his 
attitude  changed. 


1G4G]  DIGBY'S   DEVICES  283 

many  promises,  had  kept  him  company  from  Ireland)  without 
one  penny  of  money  to  subsist  on  during  his  absence." 

Digby  was  true  to  his  own  character  throughout.  The 
envoy,  who  was  to  persuade  all  in  the  Queen's  Court  to 
adopt  his  own  scheme  with  enthusiasm,  was  soon  captive 
in  the  hands  of  a  far  more  wily  diplomatist.  The  Queen 
was  as  determined  as  ever  that  her  son  should  join  her  in 
France ;  and  she  had  an  able,  but  astute,  ally  in  Mazarin. 
He  knew  Digby's  foible,  and  flattered  him  to  the  top  of  his 
bent.  He  was  full  of  protestations  of  warm  friendship  for  the 
Enghsh  Crown.  They  in  France,  according  to  the  Cardinal, 
had  learned  the  error  of  their  ways  in  suffering  the  King  to  be 
oppressed  by  his  enemies.  *'  The  Crown  of  France  was  to  wed 
the  Crown  of  England ;  "  but  a  necessary  preliminary  was 
that  the  person  of  the  Prince  should  be  in  France.  It  was, 
of  course,  purely  in  the  interest  of  the  Prince  himself  that 
this  condition  was  pressed.  Once  he  was  there,  an  ambas- 
sador would  be  sent  to  England  to  state  to  the  Parliament 
the  peremptory  demands  of  France,  and  failing  a  speedy 
answer,  to  declare  war.  An  army  would  at  once  be  ready, 
and  at  the  head  of  such  a  force  as  would  leave  nothing  in 
doubt,  the  Prince  would  "  have  the  honour  to  redeem  and 
restore  his  father."  The  Cardinal  professed  to  know  fresh 
dangers  which  the  Prince  ran ;  and  he  took  care  that  a  letter 
from  himself  to  Conde  should  come  into  the  hands  of  the 
Queen,  in  which  he  told  how  some  persons  "  about  the  Prince 
in  Jersey,"  were  ready  to  surrender  him  to  the  Parhament 
for  twenty  thousand  pistoles.^  The  letter  was  conveyed  to 
Jersey,  and  Hyde  saw  what  construction  would  be  placed 
upon  his  refusal  to  assent  to  the  removal  to  France. 

The  scheme  now  propounded  was  skilfully  adjusted  to 
the  volatile  mood  of  Digby ;  to  him  a  noble  part  was  assigned, 

'   Rebellion,  x.  18. 


284  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

and  it  was  just  such  as  served  to  attract  his  enthusiastic  sup- 
port. Ireland  and  its  promises  were  at  once  forgotten,  and  he 
became  a  sworn  and  whole-hearted  advocate  for  the  French 
plan,  which  he  had  so  unsparingly  denounced  to  Hyde  only 
a  few  days  before.  With  something  of  grim  humour,  Hyde 
tells  the  story,  of  which  he  saw  the  amusing,  as  well  as  the 
dangerous  side.  Digby  returned  to  Jersey  to  paint  the  result 
of  his  mission  in  the  brightest  colours.  He  told  Hyde  all 
that  the  Cardinal  had  said,  "  not  leaving  out  any  of  the 
expressions  of  the  high  value  his  eminence  had  of  Digby's 
particular  person."  Everything  had  been  trusted  to  Digby, 
even  to  the  selection  of  an  ambassador.  It  was  all  so 
hopeful,  that  "  he  conjured  his  friend  to  concur  in  that 
advice,  which  would  be  very  grateful  to  the  Queen,  and 
be  attended  with  much  benefit  to  himself."  The  Queen  was 
"  confident  of  his  service ;  "  but  whether  Hyde  agreed  or  no, 
the  Prince,  Digby  was  certain,  "  would  obey  his  mother." 

Hyde,  "who  in  truth  loved  him  very  heartily,  though 
no  man  better  knew  his  infirmities,"  remained  unmoved  by 
Digby's  blandishments  as  well  as  by  his  threats.  He  refused 
to  accept  the  lavish  promises  of  Mazarin,  and  reminded 
Digby  how  he  himself  had  been  formerly  deceived  by  promises 
from  the  same  quarter.  For  himself,  he  profoundly  dis- 
trusted them,  and  remained  of  his  old  opinion.  Before  he 
agreed  to  the  removal,  he  must  have  the  authority  of  the 
King. 

The  news  now  reached  both  France  and  Jersey,  not 
only  that  the  King  had  delivered  himself  to  the  Scots,^  and 
had  been  removed  with  the  Scottish  army  to  Newcastle,  but 
that  he  was  kept  by  them  in  virtual  imprisonment.  His 
friends  were  carefully  excluded  from  any  intercourse  with 
him,  and  Ashburnham,  his  gentleman  of  the  bed-chamber, 
who  had  accompanied  him  in  the  midnight  ride  from  Oxford 

'  AprU  27,  1640. 


1646]  THE   KING   WITH   THE   SCOTS  285 

to  join  the  Scots  at  Newark,  was  not  only  debarred  from 
access  to  his  master,  but  had  narrowly  escaped  becoming 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Parliament.  Montreuil  had  found 
himself  no  longer  well  received  by  the  Scots,  with  whom 
he  had  arranged  the  ill-fated  compact  between  them  and 
the  King,  and  he  had  been  glad  to  sail  for  France  in  a  Dutch 
ship.  He  brought  a  letter  from  the  King  which  Jermyn 
and  the  Queen  interpreted  as  confirming  his  previous  in- 
junctions that  the  Prince  should  take  refuge  in  France. 
Ashburnham  knew  of  no  such  commands,  and  doubted  the 
wisdom  of  the  scheme.  Capel  offered,  at  the  risk  of  his 
freedom  and  his  hfe,  to  make  a  journey  to  Newcastle,  and 
receive  the  King's  commands.  But  the  Queen  was  positive 
in  her  own  opinion,  and  would  now  brook  no  delay.  Jermyn 
— who  possessed  authority  as  titular  governor  of  Jersey — 
Wilmot,  and  others  were  dispatched  with  Colepepper  and 
Capel  to  execute  her  commands. 

It  was  in  June  that  the  emissaries  of  the  Queen,  and  their 
large  train  of  attendants,  arrived  at  Jersey,  bearing  letters 
for  the  Prince.  The  Queen  urged  the  danger  of  his  present 
situation — a  danger  which  Hyde  did  not  believe  to  exist — 
and  the  express  and  reiterated  commands  of  the  King,  as 
the  grounds  on  which  she  required  him  to  make  haste  to 
join  her  in  France.  The  Council  did  not  abandon  their 
position  without  a  final  effort.  A  conference  was  held  at 
which  Jermyn  and  Digby  assumed  that  there  could  be  no 
hesitation  in  obeying  the  Queen's  commands.  The  members 
of  the  Council  argued  that  they,  and  they  alone,  were  account- 
able to  the  King,  and  to  the  Kingdom,  for  the  movements 
of  the  Prince.  They  could  admit  no  others  to  that  Council, 
and  they  must  insist  upon  fully  debating  the  grounds  of  the 
proposal,  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  King's  orders, 
and  the  reasons  for  thinking  that  Jersey  was  unsafe.  Capel 
gave  a  full  account  of  his  mission,  of  his  representations  to 


286  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

the  Queen,  of  his  doubts  of  the  good  faith  of  the  French 
promises,  and  of  the  Queen's  readiness,  as  expressed  to  him, 
to  await  expHcit  directions  from  the  King.  High  words 
ensued  between  the  two  parties  at  the  board.  Hyde,  Capel, 
and  Hopton  were  immovable  in  their  opinion,  while  the 
others  urged  as  strongly  the  necessity  of  yielding  obedience 
to  the  Queen.  The  dispute  was  ended  only  by  the  Prince 
yielding  to  the  arguments  of  Digby  and  his  supporters, 
and  declaring  that  he  was  resolved  "  to  comply  with  the 
commands  of  the  Queen,  and  forthwith  remove  into  France." 
Further  argument  became,  to  use  Hyde's  own  words,  "  not 
only  useless,  but  indecent."  There  was  nothing  for  it,  but 
to  accept  the  inevitable.  But  Hyde,  Hopton,  and  Capel 
could  not  bring  themselves  to  join  in  a  removal  which  they 
no  longer  felt  able  to  prevent.  They  took  leave  of  the  Prince 
with  all  expressions  of  duty.  Contrary  winds  prevented 
him  from  starting  for  France  for  three  or  four  days.  During 
that  interval,  the  Prince  saw  much  of  his  Council,  and  fully 
understood  their  loyalty  to  his  interests  ;  but  between  the 
two  factions  there  was  open  rupture.  It  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  councillors  so  tried  and  so  faithful  as  Hyde, 
Hopton,  and  Capel,  should  lightly  submit  to  have  their 
policy  flouted  by  the  selfish  intrigue  of  Jermyn,  the  unstable 
caprices  of  Digby,  and  the  perverse  contrariety  of  Colepepper. 
They  fully  appreciated  the  ill-effect  of  the  departure  for 
France,  both  upon  the  nation  at  large,  and  upon  the  most 
trustworthy  of  the  Royalists.  Nor  was  there  wanting  another, 
even  graver,  ground  of  suspicion  as  to  the  intentions  of  the 
Queen  and  the  stratagems  of  Mazarin.  It  was  upon  the 
faith  of  a  compact  made  by  Montreuil  with  the  Scots  that 
the  King  had  placed  himself  in  their  hands.  Already  it 
was  apparent  that  that  compact  had  conveyed  to  the  Scots 
expectations  of  the  King's  surrender  of  Episcopacy,  and 
submission  to  Presbyterianism,  for  which  Charles  had  given 


1646]         THE  PRINCE   GOES   TO  FRANCE  287 

no  warrant,  and  against  which  lie  would  struggle  to  the 
end.  His  purpose  was  fixed  to  be  a  martyr,  if  need  be,  for 
the  Church,  and  from  that  one  purpose,  at  least,  he  never 
wavered.  Montreuil  was  disavowed  by  Mazarin ;  but  his  place 
as  ambassador  was  taken  by  Bellievre,  who  had  hved  long 
in  England,  who  knew  the  intricacies  of  the  various  factions, 
and  whose  sympathies  were  evidently  strong  against  the 
King.  Concessions,  it  was  now  evident,  had  been  indicated 
by  the  emissary  acting  on  behalf  of  the  French  Court,  far 
beyond  any  that  the  King  was  prepared  to  make.  Upon 
these  concessions  Bellievre  was  instructed  to  insist  with  the 
King  ;  and  the  King's  conscientious  scruples  were  treated 
with  a  disregard  that  told,  only  too  plainly,  of  the  influence 
of  the  Queen,  who  deemed  his  attachment  to  his  Church  a 
vain  dream  for  which  he  was  sacrificing  a  substantial  reality. 
The  King  was  becoming  more  and  more  estranged  from 
the  new  ambassador,  and  the  hardships  to  which  his  sojourn 
in  the  hands  of  the  Scots  exposed  him,  only  fixed  him  more 
firmly  in  his  resolution,  and  convinced  him  that  he  owed  not 
a  little  of  the  downfall  in  his  fortunes  to  the  shifty  diplo- 
macy of  the  French  Court.  His  anxiety  for  the  Prince's 
safety  might  have  made  him  contemplate  his  removal  to 
France  ;  but  it  was  by  no  means  sure  that  he  would  have 
assented  to  it  had  he  known  the  security  of  Jersey  ;  and  it 
was  certain  that  he  would  have  peremptorily  forbidden  it 
had  he  known  that  it  was  associated  with  a  scheme  of  sur- 
render of  the  Church,  which  it  was  the  dominating  principle 
of  his  Ufe  to  resist.  With  these  feelings  Hyde  strongly 
sympathized  ;  and  in  addition  he  saw,  with  far  more  perspi- 
cacity than  the  King,  how  ill  would  be  the  consequence  of 
a  French  connection  upon  the  most  stalwart  of  his  English 
adherents. 

The  schemes  of  the  Queen  were  soon  made  even  more 
clear.     On  the  failure  of  Bellievre  to  convert  the  King,  she 


288  DEFEAT   OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

sent  a  strange  emissary  for  the  purpose,  in  the  person  of  Sir 
William  Davenant.i  That  wayward  votary  of  the  muses 
shares  with  Waller  and  SuckHng,  the  honour,  such  as  it  was, 
of  a  brief  and  ill-fated  excursion  into  the  domain  of  poHtics  ; 
and  that  it  should  have  been  specially  concerned  with 
ecclesiastical  politics,  makes  his  selection  stranger  still. 
He  was  commissioned  by  the  Queen  to  obtain  access  to 
the  King  and  explain  to  him  the  ill-consequences  of  his 
misplaced  scruples.  By  the  mediation  of  the  French  am- 
bassador, Davenant  readily  obtained  access  to  the  King,  and 
urged  that  he  should  part  with  the  Church  for  his  peace  and 
security  ;  arguing  that  this  was  the  opinion  of  all  his  friends. 
"  What  friends  ?  "  asked  the  King.  Jermyn  was  the  first 
adduced  ;  but  the  King  told  him  "  that  Jermyn  did  not 
understand  anything  of  the  Church."  Jermyn  himself 
would  have  been  amused  at  such  a  use  of  his  authority. 
Lord  Colepepper  was  the  next  cited;  but  the  King  told 
him  "  that  Colepepper  had  no  religion."  "  Was  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  (Hyde)  of  that  opinion  ?  "  Davenant  "  did 
not  know  ;  Hyde  was  absent,  and  had  deserted  the  Prince," 
and  he  told  of  the  Queen's  displeasure  against  Hyde. 
"  Hyde,"  answered  the  King,  "  was  an  honest  man,  and 
would  never  desert  him,  nor  the  Prince,  nor  the  Church  ;  he 
was  sorry  he  was  not  with  his  son,  but  his  wife  was  mistaken." 
Davenant  rashly  urged  some  shghting  opinions  of  his  own 
upon  the  Church,  but  this  broke  the  patience  of  the  King. 
"  His  Majesty  was  transported  with  so  much  passion  and 
indignation  that  he  gave  him  more  reproachful  terms  and 
a  sharper  reprehension  than  he  ever  did  towards  any  other 
man ;    and  forbade  him  to  presume  to  come  again  into  his 

^  Sir  William  Davenant  won  his  fame  in  other  spheres  than  those  of 
politics.  He  was  born  in  1606,  the  son  of  an  Oxford  innkeeper,  unless  we 
accept  the  story,  which  Davenant  himself  did  not  vigoroutsly  combat,  of 
a  more  illustrious  patemitj'.  His  mother  was  on  good  terms  with 
yhakespeare,  who  often  stayed  at  the  inn. 


1646]  JEESEY   THKEATENED  289 

presence."  Poor  Davenant  for  once  felt  that  his  wit  was 
baffled,  and  that  he  was  involved  in  currents  which  he 
could  not  navigate.  He  returned  to  France,  a  diplomatist 
whose  mission  had  egregiously  miscarried. 

Hyde,  with  his  friends  Capel  and  Hopton,  remained  in 
Jersey,  conscious  that  the  charge  with  which  they  had  been 
trusted  by  the  King  was  now  at  an  end.  They  wrote  to  him 
a  dignified  letter  explaining  their  position,  renewing  their 
pledge  of  loyal  service,  and  their  readiness  to  obey  his  com- 
mands when  necessity  arose.  Their  fears  were  soon  realized  in 
the  cold  reception  accorded  to  the  Prince  in  France,  where 
he  was  neglected,  and  found  himself  in  complete  dependence 
on  the  Queen  and  her  pernicious  circle  of  adherents.  Mazarin's 
wiles  had  succeeded,  and  with  the  Prince  in  his  power,  he 
found  his  hands  free  to  mould  the  affairs  of  England  in  con- 
formity with  the  interests  of  France.  His  emissaries  had 
involved  the  King  in  the  toils  of  the  ill-fated  trust  in  the 
Scots.  Under  the  pressure  of  his  new  jailers  the  King  issued 
orders  to  Montrose  to  cease  his  campaign,  and  to  Oxford 
and  the  few  garrisons  that  still  remained  to  him  in  England, 
to  surrender.  He  found  his  adherents  in  Scotland  treated 
with  ruthless  barbarity  by  the  very  men  who  now  held  his 
person  in  their  power. 

In  October,  Hyde  and  his  friends  had  reason  to  know  the 
deeper  danger  of  the  trust  in  Mazarin's  promises,  and  the 
sordid  aims  of  those  who  possessed  the  confidence  of  the 
Queen.  They  found  that  there  was  a  project,  set  on  foot 
by  Jermyn,  in  consideration  of  a  bribe,  and  probably  some 
delusive  offer  of  effective  assistance  to  the  English  Crown, 
to  surrender  Jersey  to  the  French.  In  view  of  such  a 
scheme,  they  soon  took  active  measures  of  resistance.  They 
pledged  their  own  security  to  Carteret,  the  acting  Governor, 
for  the  cost  of  improving  the  fortifications.  They  sent  to 
the  Dutch  to  invoke  their  assistance  against  France,  and  they 

VOL.    I.  u 


290  DEFEAT   OF   THE   KOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

pledged  themselves  that,  sooner  than  allow  an  English  pos- 
session to  fall  into  foreign  hands,  they  would  denounce  the 
scheme  to  Parliament.  For  themselves  they  had  nothing 
to  hope.  They  had  broken  with  Parliament  beyond  all 
possibility  of  condonement ;  but  sooner  than  be  parties 
to  such  national  treachery,  they  would  appeal  to  the  only 
power  in  England  that  could  defend  her  territory.  It  was 
an  act  of  which  they  had  every  reason  to  be  proud,  and  it 
showed  that  there  were  limits  even  to  their  adherence  to  a 
party.     The  project  was  abandoned. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  learned  the  fatal  issue  of  the 
ill-omened  surrender  to  the  Scots,  which  had  taken  place 
on  the  faith  of  a  misunderstood  and  impossible  compact. 
In  January,  after  the  King's  sojourn  with  the  Scots  had 
crushed  his  spirit,  had  forced  him  to  experience  ill-treatment 
such  as  he  had  never  felt  before,  and  had  brought  pressure 
on  him  to  dissolve  the  elements  of  resistance  that  still  remained 
true  to  him,  he  was  delivered  over  to  the  Parliament  in  con- 
sideration of  a  payment  of  £400,000,  of  which  half  was  paid 
at  once.  It  is  idle  to  seek  for  excuses  for  the  sordid  bargain. 
It  was  a  transaction  of  which  every  Scotsman  must  feel 
profoundly  ashamed ;  and  no  dexterity  of  artful  apology 
can  wipe  out  the  wholesome  verdict  of  humanity  upon  an 
episode  so  despicably  mean.  Scotland's  temporary  leaders 
proved  how  ill  they  represented  the  national  character,  and 
their  action  roused  the  nation's  disgust. 

The  last  of  the  EngHsh  garrisons,  one  by  one,  had  given 
up  their  hopeless  resistance,  and  before  the  end  of  autumn 
none  remained.  With  a  natural  sympathy  for  stalwart 
resistance,  even  when  it  went  beyond  the  hmit  of  political 
prudence,  Hyde  learned  with  some  pleasure  that  those  who 
held  out  longest  obtained  as  good  terms  as  any.  Amongst 
those  who  doggedly  maintained  a  forlorn  hope  was  the 
garrison  of  the  castle  of  Pendennis,  in  Cornwall.    It  had  been 


1646]  DEATH   OF   KILLIGREW  291 

defended  by  the  most  staunch  of  the  Cornish  gentlemen, 
and  amongst  them  was  one  notable — Su:  Harry  Killigrew. 
From  first  to  last  the  bluff  Cornishman  had  never  yielded 
one  jot  to  those  whom  his  rough  loyalty  counted  as  mischief 
mongers,  and  his  honesty  had  won  him  Hyde's  warm  friend- 
ship when  they  had  met  in  the  Long  Parliament.  Killigrew 
was  no  courtier  although  he  had  the  esteem  of  courtiers  ; 
he  was  no  adept  in  political  controversy,  and  was  only 
pohtician  enough  to  loath  those  who  preached  disloyalty. 
When  the  House  had  levied  an  army,  and  made  Essex  their 
general,  there  were  those  who  from  poUcy  or  fear  announced 
what  men  in  arms  they  would  maintain.  Kilhgrew  rose 
and  said  :  "He  would  provide  a  good  horse,  and  a  good 
buff  coat,  and  a  good  pair  of  pistols,  and  then  he  doubted 
not  but  he  should  find  a  good  cause."  He  was  too  popular 
a  man  to  be  an  easy  object  of  violence ;  but  such  a  note  of 
defiance  was  too  bold  not  to  call  for  vengeance.  He  stalked 
from  the  House,  took  horse  to  Cornwall,  and  there  joined  the 
gallant  band  of  Cornishmen,  who  gave  Hopton  the  means 
of  a  resistance  that  defied  all  the  efforts  of  Parliament 
for  four  years.  Killigrew  sought  no  command,  and  only 
asked  to  be  where  the  danger  was  greatest,  and  the  fighting 
fiercest.  For  a  good  comrade  he  had  a  ready  wit  and  a 
humour  that  no  risks  or  hardships  could  quench  ;  for  a 
laggard  he  had  a  tongue  sharp  enough  to  make  the  coward 
shun  his  company.  He  had  no  mind  to  compromise,  and 
reckoned  the  moderate  man  as  only  one  step  from  the  rebel. 
In  Hyde's  pages  we  see  the  portrait  of  the  bluff,  hot-tempered, 
frank,  free-spoken  cavalier,  painted  to  the  hfe.  The  final 
surrender  doubtless  tried  his  spirit,  and  it  must  have  been 
in  hot  blood  that  he  discharged  the  "  good  pistols  "  that 
were  to  serve  his  King  no  more.  As  he  did  so,  one  of  them 
played  him  the  ill  trick  of  bursting,  and  a  splinter  inflicted 
a  bad  wound  in  his  forehead.     In  his  usual  mood  he  made 


292  DEFEAT   OF   THE   KOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

light  of  the  hurt,  and  insisted  upon  saihng  for  8t.  Malo, 
whence  he  hoped  to  join  his  friends  at  Jersey,  before  the 
surgeon  permitted.  Hyde,  Capel,  and  Hopton,  all  knew 
his  worth,  and  were  glad  to  welcome  him.  They  waited 
his  coming  with  impatience,  and  when  the  ship,  sent  to  fetch 
him  from  St.  Malo,  put  into  the  harbour,  they  hastened  to 
meet  him.  But  to  their  grief  the  wound  had  proved  fatal 
at  St.  Malo  just  as  he  was  about  to  sail;  and  on  board  the 
ship  they  found  only  the  coJBQn  that  held  his  body.  The 
gallant  soldier  had  not  long  survived  the  surrender  that  he 
hated  worse  than  death.  Hyde  dwells  on  the  episode,  which 
doubtless  served  to  make  more  real  to  him  the  extinction, 
for  many  a  year,  of  all  the  hopes  of  the  master  he  had  served 
so  well. 

It  was  now  only  from  a  distance,  and  with  no  active  work 
to  distract  him,  that  Hyde  was  able  to  watch  the  progress  of 
events.  He  was,  indeed,  in  constant  touch  with  the  other 
members  of  his  party,  both  in  England,  in  Ireland,  and  in 
France.  But  he  could  only  guess  the  turn  that  matters 
took  by  comparing  the  fragments  of  conflicting  news  that 
reached  him.  It  soon  became  clear  that  the  breach  between 
the  Presbyterians  and  the  Independents  had  given  place 
to  the  far  more  serious  and  deadly  breach  between  the 
Parliament  and  the  army.  Cromwell  had  a  difficult  part 
to  play  in  reconciling  the  aims  of  a  triumphant  House  of 
Commons,  which  must  be  humoured  for  a  while  longer  in 
the  furtherance  of  the  drastic  work  of  political  revolution, 
with  the  sterner  forces  of  the  great  mihtary  engine  which 
he  had  fostered  into  strength,  and  which  must  now  be 
subdued  to  his  own  will.  He  had  need  of  all  his  vast  powers 
of  dissimulation  in  order  to  play  the  diverse  parts  of  the 
possible  friend  of  the  King,  of  the  political  revolutionar}^, 
and  of  the  stern  military  disciplinarian,  until  the  time 
should    be    ripe    for    him    to   throw   off  the  disguise  and 


1646]  CEOMWELL'S   SUPREMACY  293 

teach  the  Parliament  that  they  had  reared,  in  their  paid 
servants,  a  power  which  they  were  helpless  to  control,  and 
which  was  to  assume  the  position  of  their  master  as  well 
as  their  protector.  Just  as  Parliament  had  crushed 
the  prerogative  of  the  King  on  the  pretext  of  protecting 
him  against  evil  counsellors,  so  now  the  army  held  the 
Parliament  captive  on  the  pretext  of  defending  it  against 
the  crowds  of  London  citizens  who  demanded  that  Par- 
liament should  resist  the  aggressions  of  military  tyranny. 
Cromwell  continued  to  send  letters  to  Parliament  couched 
in  terms  of  the  most  dutiful  respect,  while  day  by  day  he 
drew  his  Ironsides  closer  to  the  city.  Parliament  blustered 
about  its  own  authority  ;  then  changed  from  bluster  to  solici- 
tation, and  in  the  end  its  Speaker  was  compelled  to  meet  the 
general  at  his  camp,  and  returned  under  his  escort  with  all 
the  show  of  honour,  and  yet  all  the  reahty  of  captivity. 
With  grim  mockery.  Parliament  was  ordered  to  appoint  a 
day  of  thanksgiving  for  its  own  Hberation.  The  city  came  to 
offer  its  obeisance  and  to  proffer  its  gifts.  The  first  was 
accepted  with  disdain,  the  last  were  scornfully  thrust  aside. 
Cromwell  was  a  consummate  actor  ;  but  no  man  knew  better 
when  and  how  to  cast  the  cloak  aside,  and  show  the  stern 
reahty  of  his  power. 

There  was  a  strange  opportuneness  in  the  death  this 
autumn  ^  of  the  Earl  of  Essex,  the  general  whose  gracious 
countenancing  of  the  Parliament's  designs,  and  whose 
acceptance  of  the  command  of  their  forces  had  only  four 
years  before  seemed  the  strongest  guarantee  of  their  mihtary 
success.  Month  by  month  Essex  had  realized  more  fully 
how  far  the  issue  of  the  work,  upon  which  he  entered  with 
so  much  hope,  had  passed  beyond  his  control.  The  direct 
simplicity  of  his  character  had  held  him  back  from  any 
temporizing,  and  as  a  soldier,  the  bond  of  military  duty 

^  September,  1C16. 


294  DEFEAT   OF   THE   EOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

weighed  heavily  with  him.  A  violent  breach  in  the  Par- 
liamentarian ranks  might  have  thrust  upon  him — even 
against  his  will — the  part  of  mediator,  and  perhaps  he 
might  still  have  found  adherents  enough  to  break  the  rising 
mihtary  power.  But  he  died  at  the  very  time  when  the 
propitious  moment  for  compromise  seemed  to  be  near. 
Cromwell  was  by  his  death  relieved  from  any  fear  lest  the 
influence  which  Essex  represented  might  revive. 

Hyde  learned  only  by  chance  letters  of  the  progress  of 
the  new  duel  between  army  and  Parliament,  and  into  his 
biography  the  details  of  that  struggle  do  not  enter.  It  was 
in  January  164^.  that  the  King  passed  from  the  hands  of  the 
Scots  into  those  of  Parliament.  It  was  in  June  that  Cornet 
Joyce  ^  roughly  entered  the  King's  bed-chamber  at  Holmby, 
and  by  the  authority  of  his  pistols  and  of  his  files  of  Iron- 
sides, made  him  the  prisoner  of  the  Army.  The  Cornet 
was  a  ready  tool  directed  by  a  master  hand.  Five  years 
of  Civil  War  had  made  the  sword  omnipotent.  The  army 
had  given  checkmate  to  the  ParHament,  and  the  person 
of  the  King  was  but  the  chief  piece  upon  the  board  in  the 
game  between  the  two. 

The  King  was  removed  to  Hampton  Court ;  and  to  out- 
ward seeming  his  treatment  at  the  hand  of  the  army  was 
better  than  that  he  had  received  from  the  representatives 
of  the  Parliament  at  Holmby.  His  friends  were  freely 
admitted  to  him.  Instead  of  the  rabid  Presbyterian  divines 
who,  in  his  Scottish  surroundings,  had  made  his  life  a  burden, 
he  found  himself  attended  by  his  own  chaplains,  and  the 
leading  ofiicers  of  the  army  behaved  themselves  towards 
him  always  with  respect,  and  often  with  cordiality.  At 
Hampton  Court  his  liberty  was  not  outwardly  curtailed, 

'  Joyce  was  one  of  the  agitators  in  the  army,  and  had  been  a  tailor. 
He  had  served  in  a  menial  capacity  for  some  years  in  Mr.  Hollis's  house. 
Cromwell  disavowed  his  action,  but  it  suited  his  plans  too  v.-ell  for  it  to  be 
possible  to  believe  that  it  was  without  his  authority. 


1647 J  THE   KING   WITH   THE   AEMY  295 

and  above  all  he  was  suffered  not  only  to  receive  his  children, 
the  Duke  of  York,  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  and  the  little 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  but  he  paid  them  frequent  visits  at 
Sion  House,  where  they  were  in  the  charge  of  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland.     Ormonde  came  from  Ireland  to  consult 
with  him.     Sir  John  Berkeley,  and  Ashburnham,  the  gentle- 
man of  his  bed-chamber,  resorted  to  him  with  instructions 
from  the  Queen.     Berkeley  was  a  man  for  whom  neither 
the  King  nor  Hyde  had  much  respect ;    for  Ashburnham 
the  King  had  an  affection  which  Hyde  did  not  share.     Per- 
haps his  most  important  visitor  was  Lord  Capel,  who  came  to 
express  to  him  more  fully  the  views  which  he  held  in  common 
with  his  bosom  friends,  Hyde  and  Hopton.    All  these  were 
allowed  full  access  to  their  master,  and  in  free  intercourse 
with  the  officers  of  the  army^  they  were  led  to  form  hopes 
of  better  days  for  the  Royalist  party.    Even  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  once  more  came  upon  the  scene  as  a  friend  of 
the  King,  and  held  out  good  hopes  that  he  might  again 
win  for  the  Royalist  cause  some  support  in  Scotland  by 
tearing  to  pieces  the  cunningly  contrived  web  of  Argyle's 
treachery  and  deceit.     He  could  count,  he  said,  upon  the  help 
of  those  who  felt  the  honour  of  Scotland  tainted  by  the 
surrender  of  the  King.     Cromwell  found  it  advisable  for  a 
time  to  appear  as  the  possible  saviour  of  the  King.     Mean- 
while,  the    ParUament    could    only  look  on,   in  impotent 
jealousy,  and  see  their  authority  gradually  disappear  before 
the  Frankenstein  of  their  own  creation.    Hyde  no  doubt  had 
frequent  messages  from  Hampton  Court.     The  King  wrote 
to  him,   and  zealously  supplied  him  with  documents  and 
information  for   his    help    in   writing   that  record  of  the 
great  struggle  upon  which  Hyde  was  now  busily  engaged. 
But    in   the   interval  of   composition,  Hyde  watched  with 
care  the  stages  of  the  negotiations  now  in  progress.     To 
his   eyes    they   offered  no   such   happy  presages   of   hope 


296  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

as  his  more  sanguine  friends  allowed  themselves  to 
form. 

Cromwell  found  it  prudent,  as  yet,  to  keep  up  some 
semblance  of  respect  for  Parliament.  It  was  his  real  and 
principal  business  to  bring  matters  to  a  final  breach  between 
the  King  and  Parhament.  With  his  full  approval  the  "  Four 
Bills  "  ^  were  presented  to  the  King,  whose  assent  to  them 
was  peremptorily  demanded  as  a  preliminary  to  any 
negotiations.  They  were  such  as  no  inducement  would 
have  forced  the  King  to  accept,  and  his  refusal  was  followed 
by  a  vote  pledging  the  Parliament  to  receive  no  more 
addresses  from  the  King.  It  was  in  vain  that  Maynard  ^ 
argued  that  such  a  vote  not  only  broke  the  machine  of 
Government,  but  virtually  abrogated  the  functions  of  the 
Parliament  itself  as  a  branch  of  the  Constitution.  Such 
a  consummation  was  indeed  an  essential  part  of  Crom- 
well's design. 

But  within  the  army  itself,  wayward  and  dangerous 
elements  of  disturbance  arose.  The  Levellers  were  now 
making  themselves  heard,  and  they  vowed  that  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  Monarchy  must  go,  and  that  all  distinctions  of 

*  This  was  the  name  applied  to  four  propositions,  which  for  some 
time  had  been  discussed  in  Parliament,  and  had  now  taken  the  form  of 
Four  Bills.  The  first  of  these  gave  to  Parliament  the  control  of  all 
military  force  for  twenty  years,  and  declared  that  the  control  should  never 
revert  to  the  Crown,  except  with  the  assent  of  Parliament.  The  second 
and  third  revoked  the  King's  declarations,  and  cancelled  all  recently 
granted  honours.  The  fourth  gave  to  Parliament  the  power  of  adjourning 
to  any  place  they  pleased.  The  Bills  were  passed  by  Parliament  about 
the  middle  of  December,  and  the  King  refused  consent  on  December  28. 

-  John  Maynard,  who  became  Sir  John  in  1660,  was  born  in  1602,  and 
his  long  life  carried  him  through  the  troubles  of  James  I.'s  reign,  through 
the  Rebellion,  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  Stuart  period,  and  over  the 
final  act  of  the  drama  in  the  Revolution  of  1688.  He  maintained  his 
independence  throughout,  and  yet  managed  to  steer  a  course  which 
avoided  dangerous  pitfalls  on  every  side,  and  left  him  a  wealthy  and 
prosperous  man.  He  must  be  distinguished  from  his  contemporary.  Sir 
John  Maynard,  also  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament,  who  maintained 
the  cause  of  the  City  against  the  army,  and  was  involved,  as  a  consequence, 
in  prosecution,  tine,  and  imprisonment. 


1648]       ESCAPE   FROM   HAMPTON   COURT  297 

rank  must  disappear.  Such  agitation  might  serve  as  a 
means  of  hastening  sterner  measures  ;  but  it  was  a  force 
which  must  not  be  allowed  to  assert  itself  in  mutiny.  Crom- 
well knew  how  to  take  drastic  steps  to  crush  such  a  spirit 
of  rebelHon  at  the  right  moment.  The  ringleaders  were 
summarily  dealt  with,  and  then  his  purpose  relentlessly 
disclosed  itself.  The  hopes  that  had  been  roused  had  next 
to  be  dissipated.  The  vain  figments  which  had  inspired 
the  various  negotiations  amongst  the  Royahsts,  the  Scots, 
the  more  loyal  amongst  the  officers,  and  the  friends  of 
Charles  who  had  fancied  that  they  saw  new  opportunities 
for  intrigue,  had  to  be  summarily  dispelled.  The  King 
found  the  demeanour  of  the  officers  altered.  His  liberty 
was  more  restricted  ;  his  friends  had  no  longer  easy  access 
to  him ;  stern  denunciations  of  his  own  deceptions  reached 
his  ears.  Rumours  of  assassination  were  conveyed  to  him, 
and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  he  used  such  liberty  as  still 
remained  to  him,  and  at  midnight,  on  November  11th,  in  the 
company  of  Berkeley  and  Ashburnham,  escaped  on  horse- 
back from  Hampton  Court.  By  stealthy  roads  he  made 
his  way  to  the  south  coast.  Whether  he  hoped  to  escape 
to  France  or  to  Jersey  is  uncertain.  But  necessity  gave 
him  no  choice,  and  within  a  few  days  he  found  himself 
obliged  to  commit  himself  to  Hammond,  the  Governor  of 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  by  whom  he  was  lodged  in  Carisbrook 
Castle,  once  more  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  army.  Hyde's 
forebodings  of  the  ill-result  of  all  these  vain  negotiations 
were  fully  realized.  In  later  days  Berkeley  and  Ashburnham 
were  both  blamed  for  having  been  responsible  for  betraying 
him  into  Hammond's  hands.^  Hyde  had  no  respect  for 
either — and  of  the  two  he  most  despised  Berkeley.  But 
on  a  full  examination  of  the  evidence,  he  was  disposed  to 
lay    the    blame    on    the   innate   vanity   that    made   them 

'  See  ante,  p.  211. 


298  DEFEAT   OF   THE   EOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

the  dupes  of  shrewder  men,  rather  than  on  conscious 
treachery. 

Once  more,  at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  the  Scottish  Com- 
missioners renewed  their  offers.  But  Cromwell's  disguise 
was  now  more  openly  thrown  aside.  The  King,  after  being 
allowed  a  certain  period  of  comparative  freedom,  during 
which  it  would  have  been  easy  for  him  to  have  escaped,  was 
now  kept  as  a  close  prisoner.  The  hopelessness  of  any  further 
deahngs  with  him  was  more  openly  declared.  Cromwell  did 
not  hesitate  to  say  that,  if  he  encountered  him  in  fight,  he 
would  use  his  pistols  upon  the  Eoyal  person  as  freely  as  he 
would  upon  any  trooper  in  the  enemy's  ranks.  The  sacred- 
ness  of  the  kingly  office  he  openly  flouted,  and  the  aims  of 
the  Levellers  became  a  part  of  Cromwell's  deliberate  policy, 
now  that  the  mutiny  of  those  who  first  preached  such 
doctrine  had  been  sternly  checked.  Hyde  saw  how  truly 
he  had  discerned  that  Independents  and  Presbyterians 
were  alike  fickle  allies.  For  the  designs  and  character  of 
both  he  had  an  equally  profound  dishke.  But  the  Presby- 
terians were  the  worse  politicians  of  the  two.  They  had  not 
learned  as  thoroughly  as  the  Independents,  so  he  tells  us, 
the  lesson  taught  by  Machiavelli,  that  when  you  once  enter 
on  tortuous  designs  to  crush  liberty,  you  must  be  prepared 
to  hesitate  before  no  villainy  that  will  make  these  designs 
ejEfective.^ 

The  year  1647  closed  with  the  disappearance  of  these  last 
hopes.   Ormonde  ^  continued  for  a  time  to  nurse  vain  delusions 

1  See  Hyde's  enunciation  of  this  aspect  of  Machiavelli's  teaching,  and 
his  application  of  it  to  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Independents  respectively 
{History  of  Rebellion,  x.  168). 

-  James  Butler,  descended  from  one  of  the  most  ancient  families  in 
Ireland,  was  born  in  1610,  and  succeeded  his  grandfather  as  Earl  of  Ormonde 
and  Ossory.  From  his  earliest  years,  he  showed  abUity  and  energy,  and  it 
was  his  independent  spirit  that  won  for  him  the  respect  of  Wentworth 
(Strafford)  even  when  he  resisted  the  imperious  commands  of  that  stern 
Deputy  in  Ireland.  His  vast  possessions  enabled  him  to  afford  the  King 
effective  aid  in  the  Civil  War,  and  his  losses  in  that  war  were  estimated  to 


1648]  PEISONEE   AT   CARISBKOOK  299 

as  to  aid  from  France.  These  had  akeady  been  proved  to 
be  utterly  deceptive.  Mazarin  had  no  mind  to  embroil  him- 
self with  the  growing  power  of  Cromwell.  If  the  Royalists 
indulged  in  any  vain  schemes  of  armed  resistance  to  the  new 
authority,  they  were  quickly  undeceived.  Nor  were  secret 
designs  attended  with  any  better  success.  A  zealous 
adherent — one  Captain  Burley — ventured  on  a  rash  scheme 
of  rescuing  the  King  from  his  imprisonment  at  Carisbrook 
by  the  assistance  of  the  loyahsts  of  Newport.  His  plot 
was  nipped  in  the  bud,  and  he  paid  with  his  hf e  for  the  rash 
effort  to  save  from  illegal  imprisonment  one  who  was  still 
his  acknowledged  King.  The  King,  as  well  as  Parlia- 
ment and  the  nation,  was  securely  held  in  Cromwell's  toils. 
During  these  eighteen  or  twenty  months,  Hyde  had  been 
in  Jersey,  spending  the  first  period  of  his  long  exile  of  fourteen 
years.  By  constant  correspondence,  he  kept  a  close  touch 
upon  affairs  in  England,  and  was  fairly  well  informed  of  all 
that  passed.  He  gauged  rightly  the  profitlessness  of  the 
various  schemes  of  alHance  with  one  or  another  of  the 
factions  that  now  split  the  anti-Royalist  party.  In  his  own 
mind,  the  only  hope  for  the  King  lay  in  patience,  in  the 
steadfast  pursuit  of  a  consistent  policy,  and  in  allowing 
the  inherent  instincts  of  the  nation  to  re-assert  their  power. 
That  hope  could  only  be  realized  by  avoiding  compromising 
partnerships,  by  yielding  to  no  unworthy  terms  of  surrender, 

exceed  a  million  sterling.  He  had  an  arduous,  hopeless,  and  ill-supported 
task  in  the  attempt  to  settle  the  Irish  Rebellion,  and  was  eventually  driven 
into  exile,  where  he  suffered  the  direst  privations.  Again  and  again  he 
returned  in  disguise  to  England,  to  attempt  forlorn  hopes  for  the  Royalist 
cause.  He  came  back  at  the  Restoration,  and  was  made  Duke  of  Ormonde, 
and  Lord  High  Steward.  He  lived  honoured  and  respected  till  1688,  and 
proved,  even  in  the  reign  of  James  II.,  that  his  loyalty  could  be  united 
mth  absolute  kkdependence. 

Writing  from  Jersey,  in  May,  1647,  Hyde  speaks  of  Ormonde,  afterwards 
to  be  so  closely  associated  with  him  in  the  warmest  friendship,  as  one  with 
whom  he  had  then  no  acquaintance,  but  the  most  sincere  respect.  He  is, 
according  to  Hyde,  one  "  whom  I  take  to  be  the  most  excellent  subject  the 
King  is  Lord  of  "  [Clarendon  Stale  Papers,  ii.  36G). 


300  DEFEAT   OF   THE  ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

and  by  each  member  of  the  Royahst  party  resolving  to  face 
loss  and  hardship  rather  than  capitulate  with  his  principles. 
Hyde  was  not  in  sympathy  with  those  who  were  ready  to 
"  compound  "  with  the  rebels,  and  buy  some  measure  of 
contemptuous  toleration  by  the  payment  of  fines  and 
forfeitures.  He  saw  no  sohd  reason  which  could  justify 
such  compounding  with  treason  for  any  one  who  had 
originally  resisted  treason  on  conscientious  grounds.^  If 
a  man's  conscience  permitted  him  to  buy  such  toleration 
from  rebels,  it  would  have  been  better  that  he  should  have 
played  the  traitor  from  the  first,  and  not  helped  to  prolong 
the  vain  struggle  of  the  Civil  War. 

But  although  he  was  impatient  with  such  compromise, 
Hyde  in  his  exile  was  not  unwilling  to  appreciate  the  temp- 
tation it  offered  to  those  who  remained.  For  them,  further 
fighting  seemed  hopeless ;  and  they  might  at  least,  by  sur- 
render, prevent  the  local  administration  of  the  country  from 
falling  into  the  worst  hands.  Already  it  was  apparent  that 
social  rank  was  being  submerged,  and  that  the  least  worthy 
and  the  least  responsible  were  being  pushed  into  an  authority 
which  they  were  entirely  unfitted  to  wield.  The  constable 
was  converted  into  the  justice  of  the  peace ;  the  overseer 
of  the  poor  became  the  autocratic  commissioner.^    Might 

*  Hyde  expressed  this  view  even  more  clearly  in  later  days,  but  it  is 
visible  in  his  correspondence  even  at  this  time.  Writing  to  Lord  Hopton, 
on  June  9,  1647  {Clarendon  State  Papers,  ii.  370),  he  says  :  "  Whatever 
others  do,  let  me  persuade  you,  as  you  have  ventured  your  life,  and  lost 
your  fortune,  in  the  defence  of  your  country,  so  do  not  think  you  have 
preserved  it,  when  you  have  bartered  away  those  fundamental  rights  upon 
which  the  Constitution  of  it  is  founded."  Again,  in  a  letter  to  Sir  J.  Berkeley 
(October  6,  1647,  State  Papers,  ii.  379)  :  "  I  must  say  that  from  the  be- 
ginning of  these  contentions,  unreasonable  concessions  have  always  pro- 
duced unreasonable  demands,  and  if  they  see  you  will  not  yield,  they  must. 
A  firm  peace  can  never  be  established  but  by  the  old  models.  I  do  not  say 
an  honest,  or  an  honourable  peace,  but  a  firm  peace.  Let  it  be  never  so 
showy,  it  can  never  last,  if  the  old  banks  be  not  kept  up." 

See  also  at  a  later  day,  Hyde  to  Hopton,  Feb.  14,  1647  (State  Papers, 
iii.  2) ;  Hyde  to  Nicholas,  Dec.  29,  1650  (ibid.,  iii.  26) ;  and  Hyde  to 
Ormonde,  Nov.  1,  1659  (ibid.,  iii.  595). 

-  Rebellion,  x.  151. 


1647]  HYDE   IN   JERSEY  301 

not  prudent  compromise  become  a  duty,  if  it  were 
to  preserve  even  a  fragment  of  social  order  ?  Exile 
was  a  melancholy  fate  enough  ;  but  at  least  it  saved  Hyde 
from  those  temptations  to  make  terms  with  the  Army  and 
the  Parliament,  which  captivated  many  less  conspicuously 
marked  out  for  the  enmity  of  the  rebels  than  he. 

His  enforced  leisure  at  Jersey  was  happily  occupied, 
and  this  consoled  him  at  once  for  anxiety  on  account  of 
his  family,  and  for  some  petty  privations  which  he  had  to 
endure.  After  the  Prince  left  in  July,  1646,  Hyde  had  in 
Hopton  and  Capel  the  companionship  of  the  two  men  whom 
he  would  probably  have  chosen  out  of  the  whole  remaining 
band  of  his  Eoyalist  friends.  Some  of  these,  amongst  them 
the  dearest  of  all — 'the  Falkland  to  whom  his  memories 
fondly  returned  in  long-after  years — had  fallen  in  the  struggle. 
Others  were  dispersed  or  in  hiding.  Hopton  and  Capel,^  his 
present  companions,  were  two  of  the  purest  and  most  un- 
selfish spirits  still  surviving  amongst  the  adherents  of  the 
King.  These  three  lived  together  at  St.  Helier's  ;  that  is  to 
say,  they  occupied  convenient  houses  in  the  town,  and  met 
together  each  day  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  church,  where  they 
had  the  services  of  a  chaplain  of  their  own  choice ;  dined 
together  afterwards,  and  met  in  the  evening  to  stroll  together 
on  the  sands.  They  were  treated  with  warm  cordiality  by 
Sir  George  Carteret,  the  Deputy-Governor,  and  met  with 
kindness  from  the  loyal  inhabitants  of  Jersey.  Hopton  and 
Capel  spent  their  leisure  in  riding  or  reading ;  Hyde,^  with 

^  Lord  Capel's  daughter  became,  long  afterwards,  the  wife  of  Hyde's  son, 
the  second  Earl  of  Clarendon. 

^  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Morley  he  jests  at  himself  for  occupying  his  time  in 
reading  the  classics,  instead  of  improving  his  French.  He  had  an  object 
in  studying  the  best  models  of  historical  composition.  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  John 
Earle,  of  December  14,  1647  (Clarendon  State  Papers,  ii.  386),  he  speaks  of 
Livy  and  Tacitus  as  his  models,  especially  for  the  drawing  of  character, 
and  then  proceeds  :  "  I  am  contented  you  should  laugh  at  me  for  a  fop  in 
talking  of  Livy  and  Tacitus,  when  all  I  can  hope  for  is  to  side  HoUingshead 
and  Stowe,  or  (because  he  is  a  poor  knight,  too)  Sir  Richard  Baker." 


302  DEFEAT   OF   THE    KOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

his  usual  steady  assiduity,  set  himself  to  writing  the  history 
of  that  momentous  struggle  in  which  he  had  already  played  so 
conspicuous  a  part.  Theirs  was  a  thrifty  life,  and  in  one  of 
his  letters,  Hyde  tells  how  they  could  afford  only  one  good 
meal  in  the  day  ;  but  they  had  abundant  consolations. 
Hyde  enjoyed,  "  as  he  was  wont  to  say,  the  greatest  tran- 
quillity of  mind  imaginable."  ^  He  could  not  but  be  anxious 
about  his  wife  and  children,  who  still  remained  in  England, 
who  certainly  had  scanty  resources,  and  who  might  be  made 
to  feel  even  more  decided  marks  of  the  ill-humour  of  the 
Parliament.  But  he  could  place  full  trust  in  the  stead- 
fastness of  mind  in  his  wife,  which  never  failed  him  through 
all  these  weary  vicissitudes.^  He  had  at  least  philosophy 
enough  to  teach  him  that  undaunted  hope  and  untiring  work 
were  the  best  cures  for  the  ills  under  which  he  lay.  What- 
ever others  might  do,  he  at  least  sought  no  subterfuges  from 
conscience,  and  no  compromising  pledges.  He  was  sustained 
in  his  work  by  seeing  the  History,  which  was  to  be  his  great 
legacy  to  posterity,  growing  under  his  hand.  Every  page 
of  it  tells  us  that  the  author  was  conscious,  however  he 
might  allege  a  less  ambitious  aim,  that  he  was  painting  for 
all  time  those  scenes  of  history  that  he  had  helped  to  make  ; 
and  his  chief  annoyance  was  that  those  who  could,  and  had 
promised  to,  supply  him  with  material  for  those  parts  of  it 
which  were  beyond  his  own  knowledge,  often  failed  to  give 
him  the  help  they  might.  The  King  at  least  found  time  to 
do  his  part  in  sending  him  valuable  material.  He  knew  enough 
of  Hyde's  pen  to  realize,  perhaps  almost  unconsciously, 
that  his  would  be  the  hand  that  would  portray  the  story 
of  the  war  which  posterity  would  chiefly  read.     After  a  time, 

>  Life,  i.  239. 

'^  In  letters  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  the  Earl  of  Southampton  at 
this  time,  he  commends  his  wife  and  young  family  to  their  care,  in  the  event 
of  his  own  death.  He  made  his  will,  providing  carefully  for  the  payment 
of  his  debts,  and  praying  that  the  help  of  Lord  Hopton,  Lord  Capel,  and 
Nicholas  shall  be  extended  to  his  wife  (Clarendon  State  Papers,  ii.  355). 


1647]  HIS   OCCUPATIONS   THEKE  303 

first  Capel  and  then  Hopton  were  called  away  to  take  part 
in  new  efforts  for  the  cause  they  all  had  at  heart.  Hyde 
remained  to  prosecute  his  great  work  in  quiet,  and  to  await 
the  summons  from  the  King  to  join  the  Prince,  as  soon  as 
his  assistance  might  be  required.  Bereft  of  his  friends,  he 
accepted  the  invitation  of  Sir  George  Carteret  to  take  up 
his  abode  with  him  at  Castle  Elizabeth.  There  he  built 
for  himself  a  small  lodging  against  the  wall  of  the  church, 
on  which  he  inscribed  the  motto  fitted  for  his  quiet  retreat, 
"  Bene  vixit  qui  bene  latuit."  Lonely  otherwise,  he  had 
the  companionship  of  his  books  and  papers,  and  ten  hours 
every  day  went  to  the  compiling  of  the  first  part  of  his 
monumental  History  in  its  original  form.  By  personal  letters 
from  the  King,  he  knew  that  he  was  not  forgotten  in  the 
love  of  the  master  he  had  served  so  well,  who  still  looked 
forward  to  the  day  when  he  or  his  successors  would  benefit 
by  Hyde's  guidance  and  wise  advice.  Sheldon,  who  still 
remained  with  the  King,  told  Hyde  how  envious  and 
detracting  messages  from  Paris  had  utterly  failed  to  shake 
the  King's  faith  in  his  wisdom  and  his  trustworthiness. 
That  good  opinion  was  strengthened  by  the  accounts  given 
by  Lord  Capel,  who  returned  to  England,  and  managed 
to  get  access  to  the  King.  The  serenity  of  spirit  which, 
in  spite  of  his  quick  temper,  never  failed  Hyde,  stood  him 
in  good  stead  now.  Patience  and  hard  work  were  the  best 
anodynes  against  the  depression  and  anxiety  that  might 
well  have  overwhelmed  a  less  courageous  man.  In  the 
spring  of  1647,  there  seemed  a  real  danger  that  Jersey 
would  be  seized  by  the  Parhamentary  Fleet,  and  Hyde 
knew  well  what  fate  awaited  him  should  he  fall  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies.  It  was  this  which  prompted  liim  to 
make  his  will,  and  leave  his  last  injunctions  to  his  family. 
But  the  danger  passed  away. 

Once  more  his  pen  was  employed  in  a  vindication  of 


304  DEFEAT   OF   THE   EOYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

the  King  against  the  Parliament's  vote  of  "  No  Addresses  "  ; 
and  it  was  by  means  of  his  old  friend,  Nicholas,  the 
Secretary,  that  it  was  conveyed  to  the  King,  to  be  published 
for  the  judgment  of  the  people.  Like  its  predecessors,  it 
worked  powerfully  for  the  Eoyalist  cause.  Early  in  1648,  he 
received  from  Capel  notice  that  he  must  hold  himself  in 
readiness  to  join  the  Prince  at  Paris.  In  April  he  was 
warned  that  the  summons  would  come  soon.  About  the 
middle  of  May  the  Queen  sent  the  actual  call  to  him  to  come. 
It  was  no  welcome  one  to  Hyde,  who  knew  he  was  bid  to 
place  himself  in  a  hot-bed  of  intrigue ;  but  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  obey.  From  his  quiet  labour  in  Jersey  he  went  to  Caen, 
and  thence  he  joined,  at  Rouen,  Lord  Cottington  (the 
Lord  Treasurer),  the  Earl  of  Bristol,  and  Secretary  Nicholas, 
who  had  received  similar  orders.  The  Prince  had  already 
moved  to  Calais,  and  they  were  bidden  to  await  new  orders 
at  Eouen.  These  speedily  arrived,  and  bade  them  be  ready 
to  move  to  Holland.  They  repaired  to  Dieppe,  where  they 
soon  received  their  sailing  orders.  They  looked  for  the  first 
chance  vessel  they  could  find  to  sail  for  Flushing — all  except 
Bristol,  who  hesitated  to  make  such  a  hazardous  venture  when 
the  Channel  was  beset  by  the  Parliament's  Fleet ;  and  while 
he  returned  to  Caen,  the  others  took  advantage  of  a  French 
vessel  of  war,  which  offered  to  carry  them  to  Dunkirk.  Hyde 
was  a  bad  sailor,  and  the  accommodation  that  the  vessel 
afforded  was  not  such  as  lessened  the  hardship  of  the  voyage. 
They  owed  little  thanks  to  France  for  the  transport.  Out 
of  their  scanty  supply  of  money,  they  were  obliged  to  pay 
the  exorbitant  demands  of  a  greedy  captain.  When  they 
arrived  at  Dunkirk,  it  was  to  learn  that  the  Prince  had  sailed 
to  the  Thames  with  the  English  fleet,  which  had  mutinied 
against  Parliament. 

The  Governor  of  Dunkirk  (Marshal  Rantzau)  offered  to 
supply  them  with  a  ship  which  would  enable  them  to  join 


1648]      SUMMONED   TO   JOIN   THE   PRINCE  305 

the  Prince  and  the  Fleet.  His  welcome  was  a  warm  one  ; 
the  man  himself  impressed  Hyde  well,  and  he  indulges  in 
one  of  his  vivid  pen-and-ink  portraits. 

"  He  received  them  with  great  civility,  being  a  very 
proper  man,  and  might  well  be  reckoned  a  very  handsome 
man,  though  he  had  but  one  leg,  one  hand,  one  eye,  and  one 
ear,  the  other  being  cut  off  with  that  side  of  his  face  ;  besides 
many  cuts  on  the  other  cheek,  and  upon  his  head,  with  many 
wounds  in  the  body ;  notwithstanding  all  which,  he  stood 
very  upright,  and  had  a  very  graceful  motion,  a  clear  voice, 
and  a  charming  delivery  ;  and  if  he  had  not,  according  to  the 
custom  of  his  nation  (for  he  was  a  German), too  much  indulged 
to  the  excess  of  wine,  he  had  been  one  of  the  most  excellent 
captains  of  that  age." 

The  frigate  he  suppHed  them  with  lost  nothing  in  his 
description.  It  bore  the  auspicious  name  of  The  Hare,  and 
transcended  in  swiftness,  so  said  the  Marshal,  all  the  vessels 
of  the  coast.  After  a  jovial  dinner  they  set  sail  in  a  bright 
moonlight  night,  and  all  promised  well.  But,  alas !  there 
fell  a  dead  calm,  in  which  The  Hare  was  as  helpless  as  her 
slower  compeers  ;  and  they  found  themselves  surrounded 
presently  by  six  or  seven  stronger  ships.  These  turned 
out  to  be  privateers,  privately  owned,  but  bearing  the  King 
of  Spain's  commission  ;  and  their  captors  treated  them 
with  ruthless  barbarity.  Their  persons  were  searched,  and 
all  they  possessed  was  taken  from  them.  Cottington  lost 
over  a  thousand  pounds  ;  and  Hyde  lost,  besides  his  clothes, 
all  the  money  he  possessed — some  two  hundred  pounds. 
They  were  carried  as  prisoners  to  Ostend.  They  apphed  to 
the  magistrates  for  redress  ;  but  soon  found  that  they  were 
likely  to  get  little  more  than  civil  words.  The  ships  were 
actually  owned  by  substantial  merchants  of  the  town,  who 
knew  how  to  make  the  magistrates  wink  at  their  misdeeds. 
Some  small  part  of  their  goods  and  papers  were  discovered 

VOL.    I.  X 


306  DEFEAT  OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

and  restored,  but  it  soon  appeared  that  their  captors  were 
in  no  mood  to  Hsten  to  proposals  for  complete  reparation. 
The  magistrates  talked  big  of  the  punishment  that  would 
be  meted  out  to  the  privateers.  But  it  was  evident  that 
they  would  go  no  further  than  words  ;  and  Hyde  and  Cot- 
tington  were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  a  hundred 
pistoles  which  might  serve  to  discharge  their  debts  in  the 
town,  and  to  carry  them  to  the  Prince.  Their  only  satisfac- 
tion was  to  observe  that  the  trade  of  privateering  was  a  risky 
one,  and  that  some,  who  had  amassed  great  fortunes  by  it, 
were  hanging  about  the  streets  as  beggars.  Hyde  treasured 
the  knowledge  for  a  future  day,  and  in  the  later  wars  with 
Holland  tried  to  dissuade  his  countrymen  from  a  business 
that  had  as  little  of  permanent  profit  as  it  had  of  justice  or 
sound  principle.  They  made  their  way  to  Flushing,  and 
thence  vainly  endeavoured  to  join  the  Prince  and  the  Fleet 
in  the  Downs.  Contrary  winds  prevented  them.  In  August 
they  learned  that  the  Prince  was  just  about  to  return  to  the 
Hague ;  and  there  they  joined  him  in  September.  They 
found  the  exiled  Court  in  a  dangerous  plight :  unwelcome 
guests  amongst  the  Dutch,  and  adding  to  their  own  mis- 
fortunes by  being  honeycombed  by  faction  and  personal 
jealousies.  Hyde  had  exchanged  his  peaceful  days  at 
Jersey  for  a  more  troubled  atmosphere ;  and  in  it  he 
had  to  spend  some  months  of  daily  increasing  anxiety  and 
deepening  tragedy. 

Events  had  moved  rapidly  in  England  from  the  spring- 
time when  the  King  had  found  himself  immured  at  Caris- 
brook  to  these  autumn  days.  The  discussion  between  the 
Parliament  and  the  army  had  revived  the  hopes  of  the 
Royalists,  and  for  the  moment  brought  to  their  side  some 
new  adherents.  The  Earl  of  Holland  conceived  the  idea 
of  recovering  his  lost  reputation  for  loyalty,  and  entered 
into  schemes  for  a  renewed  resistance  in  which  he  found 


1648]  NEW  ROYALIST  ATTEMPTS  307 

a  wonderful  amount  of  ready  co-operation  from  those  to 
whom  he  had  long  been  a  stranger.  He  was  now  in  busy 
correspondence  with  his  friend  Jermyn  and  the  Queen, 
and  his  coimection  with  the  Presbyterians,  who  were  still 
friendly  to  the  monarchy,  ensured  him  some  influence  with 
them.  He  was  named  as  general  by  the  Prince,  and  found 
that  many  were  ready  to  flock  to  his  standard  when  it  should 
be  raised.  There  was,  strangely,  little  concealment  of  their 
plans,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  Cromwell  did  not 
purposely  wink  at  these  in  order  to  bring  into  more  pro- 
minence the  strength  of  the  army  and  the  helplessness  of 
the  Parliament.  In  Scotland,  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  his 
brother  the  Earl  of  Lanark,  and  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale, 
were  united  in  a  scheme  which  was  to  supersede  Argyle,  and 
raise  a  Scottish  army  for  the  King.  In  Yorkshire  and 
Cumberland,  Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale  and  Sir  Philip 
Musgrave  were  raising  large  levies  amongst  the  aggrieved 
Royalists,  whose  hopes  were  buoyed  up  by  the  open  dissensions 
between  Parliament  and  army,  and  by  the  widespread  dis- 
content amongst  all  classes  of  the  nation  against  the  growing 
aggressions  of  the  new  tyranny.  By  a  happy  contrivance 
the  escape  of  the  Duke  of  York  was,  with  the  consent  of  the 
King,  arranged  for.  Disguised  as  a  girl,  he  managed  to  steal 
from  St.  James's,  to  get  on  board  a  ship  in  the  Thames,  and 
safely  to  reach  Holland.  Another  valuable  hostage  was 
thus  filched  from  the  enemies  of  the  King.  The  loyal 
Capel  was  again  moving  secretly  through  England,  and 
was  ready  to  engage  himself  in  any  desperate  exploit  for  the 
RoyaHst  cause. 

For  a  time  all  seemed  to  go  well.  The  fleet  was  dis- 
gusted with  the  course  of  affairs,  and  spasmodic  discontent 
soon  culminated  in  open  mutiny.  Their  officers  were 
ejected  from  the  ships,  and  the  fleet  sailed  to  join  the  Prince, 
whom  they  were  ready  to  receive  as  their  admiral.     At  the 


308  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ROYALIST   CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

same  juncture  risings  took  place  in  Kent,  and  promises  of 
strong  support  were  received  from  the  country  gentlemen. 
It  is  true  that  its  efficaciousness  was  the  more  doubtful  as 
it  was  largely  based  on  a  prevalent  rollicking  "  good  fellow- 
ship," which  kindled  hopes  and  aspirations  that  might  be 
more  imposing  for  the  moment  than  stubborn  in  resistance 
when  opposition  had  to  be  met.  To  meet  the  fleet  which 
now  offered  its  allegiance,  the  Prince  hastened  to  Calais, 
and  embarking  there,  sailed  to  the  Downs.  The  Earl  of 
Norwich  (father  of  Lord  Goring),  who  gained  support  rather 
by  his  camaraderie  and  easy  bonhomie  than  by  any  con- 
fidence in  his  conduct  or  wisdom,  was  ready  to  help  with  the 
Kentish  levies,  who  accepted  him  as  their  general.  Thus 
opened  what  has  been  described  as  the  second  civil  war. 

But  it  was  little  else  than  the  delusive  flicker  of  an  expiring 
flame.  Fairfax  was  sent  against  Norwich,  who  had  advanced 
to  Blackheath,  and  whose  army  was  soon  scattered,  and 
himself  taken  prisoner.  The  fleet  was  without  discipHne, 
and  it  required  all  Prince  Rupert's  energetic  activity  to 
keep  up  a  semblance  of  respect  for  their  officers.  Active 
mutiny  on  board  was  not  wanting,  and  on  one  occasion 
Rupert  quelled  it  only  by  the  drastic  method  of  pitching 
two  or  three  of  the  sailors  overboard  with  his  own  hands. 
Warwick  was  now  dispatched  by  the  Parliament  with  an- 
other fleet,  and  that  which  chance  had  given  to  the  Prince 
was  in  no  condition  to  resist  their  late  admiral.  The  Duke 
of  Hamilton  entered  England  with  a  Scottish  army  in  July  ; 
but  his  force  failed  to  co-operate  with  that  of  Sir  Marmaduke 
Langdale  in  Yorkshire,  and  at  Preston  his  army  was  routed, 
and  himself  taken  prisoner  by  Cromwell.  The  Prince  quitted 
the  fleet  in  hopeless  despair,  and  repaired  to  the  Hague, 
where  the  news  of  Hamilton's  disastrous  defeat  soon  reached 
him.     He  had  already  been  joined  by  Hyde  and  Cottington. 

Lauderdale  soon  came  to  the  Hague  with  new  promises 


1648]  CEOMWELL   IN   SCOTLAND  309 

of  help  from  Scotland,  and  an  invitation  for  the  Prince  to 
repair  there  with  all  speed.  He  affected  to  throw  doubt 
on  Hamilton's  defeat,  but  anyhow  it  did  not  lessen  the 
urgency  of  his  summons.  To  that  summons,  which  he  saw 
to  be  fraught  with  danger,  Hyde  opposed  the  strongest 
resistance,  and  a  keen  struggle  between  himself  and  Lauder- 
dale ensued,  the  memory  of  which  lingered  in  far  later  days. 
For  Lauderdale's  selfish  treachery  and  profound  dissimula- 
tion he  had  already  conceived  the  deepest  contempt.  The 
invitation  was  for  the  Prince  alone,  and  the  company  of 
Prince  Rupert  and  Hyde  was  strictly  barred.  To  have 
permitted  the  Prince  to  trust  himself  alone  to  Lauderdale 
would  have  been  a  desertion  of  the  charge  committed  to 
Hyde  by  the  King.  With  characteristic  insolence,  Lauderdale 
attempted  to  browbeat  the  Council ;  but  he  found  himself 
unable  to  prevail,  and  soon  returned,  in  no  good  temper, 
to  Scotland. 

Meanwhile  Cromwell  had  advanced  into  Scotland,  where 
all  bent  before  his  power.  Argyle  was  glad  to  bolster  up 
his  threatened  influence  by  obedience  to  Cromwell's  behests. 
Just  enough  deference  was  paid  to  the  Presbyterians  to 
keep  them  quiet ;  and  Scotland  was  subdued  sufficiently 
to  wait  until  a  better  opportunity  came  for  its  complete 
subjugation.  With  as  little  delay  as  might  be  Cromwell 
was  back  in  England  to  confirm  his  control  over  Parliament. 

It  took  but  little  time  to  stamp  out  the  embers  of  armed 
resistance.  Holland  rose  in  Kent,  but  his  army  was  soon 
defeated,  and  after  he  had  fled  to  St.  Neot's  he  was  captured 
and  conveyed  to  Windsor.  Colchester,  where  Capel  and  a 
gallant  band  still  maintained  themselves,  was  soon  captured 
by  Fairfax.  Cruel  and  summary  vengeance  was  meted  out 
to  some  ^ ;    others,  and  Capel  amongst  the  number,  were 

*  The  story  is  fully  told  by  Hyde  (History  of  Rebellion,  xi.  105),  and  shows 
amply  the  ruthlessness  with  wliich  vengeance  was  now  pursued.     All  the 


310  DEFEAT   OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

taken  prisoners,  on  terms  which  involved  a  pledge  on  the 
part  of  Fairfax  that  their  lives  should  be  inviolate.  Capel 
was  sent  to  join  Hamilton,  Holland,  and  Norwich  in  prison 
at  Windsor  Castle,  whence  they  were  soon  transferred  to 
the  Tower. 

The  adherents  of  the  King  were  defeated  in  the  field. 
But  it  did  not  follow  that  Royalist  sentiments  were  dead,  or 
that  the  hatred  for  the  encroaching  tyranny  was  at  an  end. 
The  disputes  between  Parliament  and  army,  between 
Presbyterian  and  Independent,  were  as  bitter  as  ever ;  and 
the  regret  and  resentment,  with  which  many  who  saw  too 
late  the  dangers  to  which  the  country  was  exposed,  secretly 
swelled  the  growth  of  these  jealousies.  The  City  was  in- 
dignant with  the  domination  of  the  army  ;  but  any  show  of 
sympathy  between  City  and  Parliament  was  speedily  followed 
by  another  turn  of  the  military  screw.  With  more  and  more 
of  insistency  the  project  of  a  personal  treaty  with  the  Kmg 
was  urged.  To  veto  such  a  treaty  altogether  might  have 
been  dangerous  ;  it  was  therefore  allowed  to  proceed,  but 
care  was  taken  to  make  the  terms  to  be  pressed  upon  the 
King  such  as  it  was  well  known  he  could  not  conscientiously 
accept.  On  September  15th,  the  Commissioners  charged  to 
carry  on  this  personal  treaty  arrived  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
They  found  the  King  sadly  changed  by  his  long  imprisonment 

officers  in  Colchester  surrendered  at  mercy,  on  condition  that  the  common 
soldiers  shovdd  be  spared.  From  these  officers,  three  were  summoned,  who 
seemed  of  superior  rank — Sir  Bernard  Gascoigne,  Sir  Charles  Lucas,  and  Sir 
George  Lisle— and  they  were  told  to  prepare  for  instant  death.  Three  files 
of  musketeers  were  drawn  up  in  readiness  for  their  execution.  It  transpired, 
however,  that  Sir  Bernard  Gascoigne  was  a  native  of  Florence,  and,  to  avoid 
foreign  complications,  he  was  spared.  The  other  two  were  straightway 
shot.  Lucas  was  brother  and  heir  to  Lord  Lucas:  "very  brave  in  his 
person,  and  in  a  day  of  battle  a  gallant  man  to  look  upon,  and  follow  ;  but 
at  all  other  times  and  places,  of  a  nature  not  to  be  lived  with,  of  an  ill- 
understanding,  of  a  rough  and  proud  nature."  Lisle  was  as  brave  an  officer 
and  as  gallant  a  leader ;  "  but  then,  to  his  fierceness  of  courage  he  had  the 
softest  and  most  gentle  nature  imaginable  ;  loved  all,  and  beloved  of  all, 
and  without  a  capacity  to  have  an  enemy."  In  choicest  words  Hyde  lays 
an  imperishable  wreath  on  a  soldier's  tomb. 


1648]  TKEATY  AT  CAPJSBROOK  311 

and  by  the  many  indignities  to  which  he  had  been  subjected. 
Sorrow  and  anxiety  had  altered  his  appearance.  He  had 
neglected  the  care  of  his  dress,  in  which  he  had  hitherto  followed 
punctiliously  the  stately  fashions  of  the  time.  His  hair  and 
beard  were  untrimmed,  and  they  had  become  prematurely 
grey.  The  impression  of  sadness  affected  the  most  heartless 
of  his  enemies  ;  but  they  soon  found  that,  in  spite  of  outward 
signs,  Charles  had  borrowed  a  new  cheerfulness  from  despair. 
The  long  fight,  as  he  clearly  discerned,  was  nearly  over  ;  and 
his  readiness  for  martyrdom  on  account  of  his  conscientious 
convictions  had  given  him  a  strength  greater  than  he  had 
ever  shown  before.  Once  more  the  old  wrangles  were  begun. 
The  demands  of  the  Commissioners  were  more  imperious 
than  ever.  The  King  was  required  formally  to  admit  that 
from  first  to  last  the  right  had  uniformly  lain  with  his 
enemies,  and  he  was  to  enter  upon  the  treaty  as  the  guilty 
party,  at  whose  door  all  blame  was  to  be  laid.  He  was  to 
sacrifice  the  Church,  to  strip  himself  of  all  military  power, 
to  renounce  any  right  of  nominating  his  own  ministers,  and 
to  abandon  his  friends  to  the  vengeance  of  Parliament.  We 
would  entirely  mistake  the  points  at  issue,  if  we  transferred 
back  to  that  day  the  later  usages  of  modern  constitutional 
monarchy,  by  which  the  nominal  powers  of  the  Crown  are 
exercised  through  a  ministry  entirely  dependent  on  a  Parlia- 
mentary majority.  The  slow  and  gentle  operation  of  time 
and  changing  usage  gradually  worked  that  peaceful  revolu- 
tion. But  by  no  party  was  such  a  solution  realized  as 
possible  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Accord- 
ing to  the  notions  of  that  day,  ministers  must  be  either 
the  servants  of  the  King  or  his  tyrannical  masters. 

In  the  severity  of  the  terms  proposed  the  hand  of  the 
military  commander  was  visible ;  and  that  severity  worked, 
as  he  designed  that  it  should,  to  make  any  compromise 
impossible. 


312     DEFEAT  OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE     [chap,  xi 

"  It  is  almost  evident,"  says  Hyde,  "  that  the  major 
part  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  was,  at  that  time,  so 
far  from  desiring  the  execution  of  all  those  concessions, 
that,  if  they  had  been  able  to  have  resisted  the  wild  fury 
of  the  army,  they  could  have  been  themselves  suitors  to 
have  declined  the  greatest  part  of  them."  ^ 

On  November  25th  the  sorry  farce  was  played  out,  and 
the  Commissioners  broke  off  the  treaty. 

Before  the  negotiations  closed  the  King  had  begun  a 
letter  to  the  Prince,  which  really  served  as  his  last  testament 
and  apologia  to  the  world  and  to  posterity.  It  was  dispatched 
a  few  days  later.  Whatever  judgment  we  may  pass  upon 
various  actions  of  the  King  during  the  long  struggle,  it 
is  impossible  to  deny  the  consummate  dignity  of  what  was 
virtually  his  farewell  to  the  long  fight,  or  to  refuse  to 
subscribe  to  Hyde's  words,  "  that  it  deserves  to  be  preserved 
in  letters  of  gold," 

In  that  letter  Charles  explained  the  motives  that  had 
guided  him  in  the  late  negotiations.  He  was  ready  to  forget 
the  disloyalty  of  many  amongst  his  subjects,  and  even 
amongst  those  whom  he  had  supposed  to  be  his  friends. 

"  But,"  he  added,  "  never  had  prince  a  testimony  in 
others  of  more  loyalty  than  he  had  ;  and  however  that  God, 
for  their  and  his  punishment,  had  not  blessed  some  of  their 
endeavours,  yet  more  misguided  persons  were  at  last  reduced 
to  their  loyalty  than  could  in  any  story  be  exampled." 
"  We  have  laboured  in  the  search  of  peace,"  he  told  his  son ; 
"  do  not  be  disheartened  to  tread  in  the  same  steps.  Use 
all  worthy  ways  to  restore  yourself  to  your  right,  but  prefer 
the  way  of  peace ;  show  the  greatness  of  your  mind,  if  God 
bless  you,  rather  to  conquer  your  enemies  by  pardoning 
than  punishing.  .  .  .  Give  belief  to  our  experience,  never  to 
affect  more  greatness  or  prerogative  than  that  which  is 
really  or  intrinsically  for  the  good  of  subjects,  not  the  satis- 

^  Rebellion,  xi.  189, 


1648]       THE   KING'S   LETTER   TO   HIS   SON  313 

faction  of  favourites.  .  .  .  These  considerations  may  make 
you  as  great  a  prince  as  your  father  is  now  a  low  one  ;  and 
your  state  may  be  so  much  the  more  established  as  mine 
hath  been  shaken.  .  .  .  The  English  nation  are  a  sober 
people,  however  at  present  infatuated." 

He  concludes  thus  : — 

"  We  know  not  but  this  may  be  the  last  time  we  may 
speak  to  you,  or  the  world,  pubhcly  ;  we  are  sensible  into 
what  hands  we  are  fallen  ;  and  yet  we  bless  God,  we  have 
those  inward  refreshments  the  malice  of  our  enemies  cannot 
perturb.  We  have  learned  to  busy  ourself  by  retiring  into 
ourself ;  and  can  therefore  the  better  digest  what  befalls 
us  ;  not  doubting  but  God's  providence  will  restrain  our 
enemies'  power,  and  turn  their  fierceness  to  His  praise. 

"  To  conclude,  if  God  gives  you  success,  use  it  humbly, 
and  far  from  revenge.  If  He  restore  you  to  your  right  upon 
hard  conditions,  whatever  you  promise,  keep.  The  men 
who  have  forced  laws,  which  they  were  bound  to  preserve, 
will  find  their  triumphs  full  of  trouble.  Do  not  think 
anything  in  this  world  worth  obtaining  by  foul  and  unjust 
means. 

"  You  are  the  son  of  our  love,  and  as  we  direct  you  to 
weigh  what  we  here  recommend  to  you,  so  we  assure  you  we 
do  not  more  affectionately  pray  for  you  (to  whom  we  are  a 
natural  parent)  than  we  do  that  the  ancient  glory  and  renown 
of  this  nation  be  not  buried  in  irreligion  and  fanatic  humour  ; 
and  that  all  our  subjects  (to  whom  we  are  a  politic  parent) 
may  have  such  sober  thoughts,  as  to  seek  their  peace  in  the 
orthodox  profession  of  the  Christian  religion  as  was  estab- 
lished since  the  reformation  in  this  kingdom,  and  not  in  new 
revelations,  and  that  the  ancient  laws,  with  the  interpreta- 
tion according  to  the  known  practice,  may  once  again  be 
a  hedge  about  them  ;  that  you  may  in  due  time  govern, 
and  they  be  governed,  as  in  the  fear  of  God  ;  which  is  the 
prayer  of 

"  Your  very  loving  Father, 

"  C.  R." 

Only  two  months  now  separated  the  King  from  the 


314     DEFEAT  OF  THE  EOYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

scaffold,  and  the  designs  of  the  army  proceeded  apace. 
Already  for  months,  if  not  for  years,  there  had  been  obscure 
threatenings  against  the  existence  of  the  Monarchy  and  the 
person  of  the  King  ;  and  these  were  now  openly  countenanced 
by  the  highest  in  authority.  The  King  had  ample  grounds 
for  fearing  assassination,  and  it  is  evident  that  there  were 
plans  formed  for  his  death  by  violence,  which  would  have 
avoided  all  the  hazards  of  a  formal  trial.  To  meet  these 
schemes  there  were  some  half-hearted  efforts  made  by  his 
adherents  to  compass  his  escape.  But  they  all  miscarried.  In 
France,  as  Hyde  tells  us,  there  was  no  desire  amongst  certain 
of  the  Eoyalists  for  the  appearance  of  Charles  upon  that  scene. 
His  escape  to  France  would  have  at  once  dissipated  the  ill- 
calculated  but  ambitious  schemes  of  the  Queen  to  retrieve 
the  position.  That  her  callous  attitude  to  the  extreme  danger 
of  her  husband  was  partly,  at  least,  due  to  ambition,  is  in- 
dubitable ;  and  we  need  not  stain  her  name  further  by 
giving  credit  to  the  scandal,  that  infidelity  to  his  ungrudging 
and  ample  love  was  in  any  way  a  helping  motive. 

In  Parliament  the  threatening  voices  against  "  the 
Great  Delinquent  "  were  now  unrestrained.  The  King  was 
moved  to  Hurst  Castle,  where  even  the  scanty  comforts  of 
Carisbrook  were  wanting.  All  those  who  opposed  the  new 
designs  were  excluded  from  Parliament ;  a  Committee  was 
appointed  to  formulate  charges  ;  and  when  these  proved 
unacceptable  to  the  Lords,  the  doors  of  the  House  of  Lords 
were  closed,  and  the  attenuated  House  of  Commons  assumed 
the  whole  authority  of  the  State.  England  had  experience 
of,  and  learned,  it  maybe  hoped  permanently,  never  to  forget, 
the  danger  and  the  tyranny  of  a  single  chamber.  Urgent 
missives  from  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  received  no  response. 
The  King  was  brought  to  Windsor  by  water,  and  thence  to  St. 
James's,  in  preparation  for  his  trial,  by  a  specially  nominated 
Commission,  over  which  Bradshaw,  an  obscure  lawyer,  was 


1649]  THE   KING'S   DEATH  315 

appointed  to  preside.  All  resistance  was  crushed  by  the 
presence  of  the  army  at  the  very  doors  of  Parliament. 

The  rest  of  the  tragedy,  carried  on  far  from  Hyde's  sight 
or  immediate  knowledge,  hes  outside  his  biography,  although 
its  effect  changed  the  whole  purpose  of  his  life.  On  January 
8th,  146^,  began  the  degrading  mockery  of  the  King's  trial;  on 
the  27th,  sentence  of  death  was  pronounced;  and  on  the  30tb, 
the  final  act  was  consummated  in  the  execution  of  the  King 
at  Whitehall.  The  nation,  dominated  by  a  band  of  deter- 
mined men,  insignificant  in  numbers,  was  cowed  into  silent 
acquiescence  in  the  perpetration  of  a  daring  outrage,  which, 
under  a  mask  of  judicial  form,  belied  the  inherent  loyalty 
of  the  Enghsh  people  and  was  at  war  with  its  innate  respect 
for  the  law.  Amidst  his  grief  for  the  loss  of  a  master  to 
whose  faults  he  was  not  blind,  but  to  whose  person  he  was 
passionately  attached,  Hyde  found  himself  immersed  in 
increasingly  irksome  duties  at  the  exiled  Court  of  his 
successor. 

It  is  not  part  of  our  business  here  to  draw  the  character 
of  Charles  I.  But  we  would  miss  an  important  aid  to  our 
judgment  of  Hyde  himself  were  we  to  leave  unnoticed  the 
verdict  which  he  passes,  in  well-weighed  words,  upon  his 
dead  master.  It  lacks  at  once  the  epigrammatic  force  and 
the  occasional  brightness  of  wit  which  are  to  be  found  in 
many  of  the  characters  interspersed  throughout  his  history  ; 
nor  has  it  the  picturesque  touches  with  which  he  often  lightens 
the  description  of  some  personality  of  striking  and  attractive 
brilliancy  and  grace,  or  the  fervent  affection  which  he  has 
lavished  upon  a  lifelong  friend  like  Falkland.  It  is  grave 
and  dignified  rather  than  forcible  or  impassioned ;  he 
imparts  to  it  no  touch  of  intimate  familiarity,  and  deals 
with  his  Royal  master  in  a  style  of  calm  formality.  His 
judgment  is  insensibly  affected  by  the  fact  that  the  King  was 
to  him  the  object  of  a  loyalty  that  had  much  of  the  gravity 


316     DEFEAT  OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

of  religious  feeling  in  its  composition.  It  is  rather  a  tribute 
paid  with  something  of  solemn  reverence  than  an  echo  of 
personal  affection.    First  of  the  King's  private  quahties— 

"  He  was,  if  ever  any,  the  most  worthy  of  the  title  of  an 
honest  man."  "  No  temptation  could  dispose  him  to  a 
wrongful  action,  except  it  was  so  disguised  to  him  that  he 
beheved  it  to  be  just."  "  He  had  a  tenderness  and  com- 
passion of  nature  which  restrained  him  from  ever  doing  a 
hard-hearted  thing."  "  So  severe  an  exactor  of  gravity  and 
reverence  in  all  mention  of  religion,  that  he  could  never 
endure  any  light  or  profane  word  with  what  sharpness  of 
wit  whatever  it  was  covered.  ...  No  man  durst  bring 
before  him  anything  that  was  profane  or  unclean."  ^  "So 
great  an  example  of  conjugal  affection,  that  they  who  did 
not  imitate  him  in  that  particular  did  not  brag  of  their 
hberty." 

We  have  here  the  portrait  of  one  who  had  a  certain 
austerity  of  character,  a  well-guarded  formality  of  manner, 
possibly  some  narrowness  of  sympathy,  and  withal  something 
of  that  lack  of  self-confidence  which  might  be  allied  to  tender- 
ness of  heart,  but  was  ill-fitted  to  contend  with  the  boisterous 
forces  let  loose  by  civil  strife.  Eeared  within  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  palace,  such  a  character  never  acquired  the 
durance  needed  for  contact  with  the  rougher  air.  With 
all  his  stern  rectitude,  and  all  his  religious  ardour,  Hyde 
himself  had  been  trained  in  a  rougher  school,  and  had  learned 
to  tolerate,  even  while  be  might  secretly  condemn,  the 
cruder  aspects  of  social  usage ;  he  had  been  disciplined  in 
a  hard  school,  and  knew  how  to  curb  the  impulses  of  tender- 
ness by  the  dictates  of  reason.  He  could  strip  away  those 
deceptions  which,  with  Charles,  so  often  concealed  the  truth, 

•  Bishop  Warburton,  commenting  on  this  passage,  adduces  against  it  an 
instance  of  the  King's  reported  conversation,  which  does  not,  when  due 
allowance  is  made  for  the  habitual  language  of  the  time,  appear  sufficient  to 
support  the  inconsistency  which  the  Bishop  wishes  to  prove  (see  Historij  of 
Rebellion  (edit.  1849),  vi.  582). 


1649]  CHARACTER   OF   THE   KING  317 

and  could  "  dispose  him  to  a  wrongful  action,"  if  "  disguised 
so  that  he  believed  it  to  be  just." 

"  His  kingly  virtues  had  some  mixture  and  alloy  that 
hindered  them  from  shining  in  full  lustre,  and  from  pro- 
ducing those  fruits  they  should  have  been  attended  with." 
"  He  was  not  in  his  nature  very  bountiful,  though  he  gave 
very  much."  "  He  kept  State  to  the  full  .  .  .  saw  and  ob- 
served men  long,  before  he  received  them  about  his  person ; 
did  not  love  strangers,  nor  very  confident  men." 

The  picture  of  the  King  is  the  very  reflection  of  the  pre- 
ceding portrait  of  the  private  man  ;  a  picture  of  a  King  who, 
in  a  scene  of  vast  social  and  political  change,  was  wedded  to 
routine,  impervious  to  new  impressions,  suspicious  of  new 
men  and  new  ideas,  and  too  reserved  and  proud  to  seek 
the  gratitude  rightly  due  to  his  own  bounty. 

"  Very  fearless  in  his  person  ;  but  not  very  enterprising. 
.  .  .  An  excellent  understanding,  but  not  confident  enough 
of  it.  .  .  .  If  he  had  been  of  a  rougher  and  more  imperious 
nature,  he  would  have  found  more  respect  and  duty."  His 
conscience  "  made  him  choose  the  softer  way,  and  not 
hearken  to  severe  counsels  how  reasonably  soever  urged." 

Every  trait  in  the  personal  character  is  mirrored  in  the 
merits  and  defects  of  the  King.  Hyde  had  learned  them 
by  many  a  vexatious  wrangle,  and  by  the  memory  of  many 
a  scheme,  baffled  by  Charles's  ill-timed  impulsiveness,  or 
wrecked  by  his  fatal  instability  of  purpose.  None  knew 
better  than  Hyde  how  much  the  dogged  courage  of  endurance, 
and  the  stately  dignity  of  suffering,  were  marred  and  blighted 
by  innate  defects  of  moral  and  intellectual  force. 

His  character  of  Charles,  if  it  wants  something  of  the 
heartiness  of  personal  regard,  shows  no  lack  of  consummate 
art.     It  unites  a  full  measure  of  sincerity  with  an  ample 


318     DEFEAT  OF  THE  ROYALIST  CAUSE    [chap,  xi 

and  dignified  tribute  of  reverential  loyalty.  Its  closing 
sentences  reflect  Hyde's  attitude  towards  that  master, 
fidelity  to  whom,  Uving  and  dead,  was  one  of  the  dominant 
motives  during  the  last  half  of  his  life  : — 

"  To  conclude,  he  was  the  worthiest  gentleman,  the  best 
master,  the  best  friend,  the  best  husband,  the  best  father, 
and  the  best  Christian  that  the  age  in  which  he  lived  pro- 
duced. And  if  he  was  not  the  best  King,  if  he  were  without 
some  parts  and  qualities  that  have  made  some  Kings  great 
and  happy,  no  other  Prince  was  ever  unhappy,  who  was 
possessed  of  half  his  virtues  and  endowments,  and  so  much 
without  any  kind  of  vice." 

Those  who  find  in  history  chiefly  a  field  for  the  exercise  of 
casuistry,  or  for  the  display  of  political  partisanship,  and 
who  never  weary  of  dissecting,  by  the  aid  of  petty  and  often 
conflicting  evidence,  the  character  of  Charles  I.,  wiU  deem  these 
to  be  words  of  undue  praise.  But  in  them  Clarendon  has  an- 
ticipated and  cast  into  enduring  form  the  verdict — rough  it 
may  be,  but  broadly  just — which  the  invincible  instinct 
of  humanity  has,  after  three  centuries,  passed,  in  spite  of 
conspicuous  errors  and  some  undoubted  flaws,  upon  the 
essential  dignity  and  the  pathetic  virtues  of  the  central 
figure  in  the  great  tragedy  of  our  Civil  War. 


CHAPTER   XII 

EXILE    AND    BROKEN    HOPES 

The  execution  of  the  King  had  sequels  which  deeply  affected 
Hyde.  Others  with  whom  his  relations  had  been  long  and 
intimate  fell  victims  to  that  vindictive  vengeance,  which 
sought  to  secure  the  new  tyranny  by  inspiring  terror.  The 
next  of  the  conspicuous  foes  of  the  new  rule  brought  to  trial 
were  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  the  Earl  of  Holland,  the  Earl 
of  Norwich,  and  Lord  Capel,  with  a  Welsh  gentleman,  Sir 
John  Owen.  With  Hamilton,  Hyde  had  been  brought  into 
contact  very  early  in  his  career,  when  as  a  young  lawyer  he 
had  been  called  into  counsel  in  an  affair  where  Jermyn's 
conduct  had  brought  scandal  to  many  leading  families, 
amongst  them  that  of  Hamilton.^  The  dark  and  mysterious 
character  of  Hamilton,  and  his  propensity  to  intrigue,  had 
alway.s  made  him  repugnant  to  Hyde,  and  in  his  case 
Hyde's  prejudice  against  the  Scots  was  allowed  full  sway. 
Hyde  was  doubtful  of  the  wisdom  of  the  King  in  putting 
confidence  in  Hamilton's  fidehty ;  and  he  was  nowise 
opposed  to  Hamilton's  being  placed  under  arrest  in  Oxford 
(where  he  came  with  a  proffer  of  allegiance),  and  afterwards 
imprisoned  at  Pendennis  Castle.  During  Hyde's  last  months 
in  England,  there  had  taken  place  those  conversations  at 
Pendennis,  where  Hamilton  urged  his  readiness  and  abihty 
to  help  the  cause  of  the  King,  if  he  were  granted  liberty,  and 

'  See  ante,  p.  36. 


320  EXILE  AND  BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

allowed  to  repair  to  his  friends  in  Scotland.  Hyde  saw  that 
the  rapid  success  of  the  Parliamentary  army  would  soon  give 
Hamilton  the  freedom  he  desired,  and  thought  that  it  would 
then  be  time  enough  for  him  to  prove  the  readiness 
which  he  professed  to  serve  the  cause  which  had  suffered 
so  grievously  at  his  hands.  Since  then  Hamilton  had 
recognized  the  fury  of  the  torrent  which  he  had  contributed 
to  let  loose,  and  like  many  others  of  his  order  he  had 
no  mind  that  the  limitation  of  monarchy  should  involve 
the  destruction  of  social  order  and  the  sweeping  away 
of  the  vast  privileges  which  belonged  to  his  own  class. 
His  jealousy  of  Argyle  led  him  with  all  the  more  readiness 
to  adopt  the  Royalist  cause,  and  he  had,  from  selfish  motives, 
taken  those  active  steps  to  defend  the  Crown,  to  which 
feelings  of  loyalty  had  failed  to  impel  him.  But  whatever 
their  motive,  his  recent  exertions  had  undoubtedly  helped  the 
Royalists  for  a  time,  and  had  been  inspired  by  a  zeal  which 
rarely  animated  Hamilton.  Hyde  admits  the  value  of  his  be- 
lated services,  even  while  he  feels  no  attraction  to  the  man. 
The  Duke  managed  to  escape  from  his  imprisonment, 
and  was  at  Hberty  for  three  days  ;  but  when  he  was  about 
to  leave  London,  presumably  for  Scotland,  he  was  re- 
arrested in  Southwark.  When  brought  to  trial,  he  denied  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Court  before  which  he  was  arraigned, 
and  asserted  that  as  he  had  taken  command  of  the  army 
at  the  orders  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  (to  which  alone 
he  owed  allegiance)  he  could  not  be  guilty  of  treason,  and, 
further,  that  he  was  subject  only  to  the  judgment  of  his 
Scottish  Peers.  That  plea  was  easily  upset :  he  was  judged, 
not  as  Duke  of  Hamilton,  but  as  Earl  of  Cambridge  in 
the  peerage  of  England.  He  continued  to  cherish  hopes  of 
a  reprieve ;  but  his  influence  in  Scotland  was  still  too 
substantial  to  allow  the  Parliamentary  leaders  to  grant  him 
his  life. 


1649]       FATE   OF  HAMILTON   AND   HOLLAND     321 

With  Holland  also  Hyde  had  had  a  long  acquaintance, 
but  no  warmth  of  friendship.  Holland's  greed  and  selfish 
ambition,  his  shiftiness  and  dissimulation,  the  gross  ingrati- 
tude which  had  transformed  him — the  most  favoured  of 
courtiers — into  one  of  the  most  virulent  enemies  of  the 
King,  had  ahenated  from  him  Hyde's  regard,  and  had  earned 
him  his  contempt.  Hyde,  it  is  true,  had  endeavoured  to 
procure  for  Holland  a  rather  better  reception,  when  he  betook 
himself  to  the  Court  at  Oxford,  and  found  himself  shunned 
by  those  whom  his  ingratitude  had  ahenated  ;  and  had 
thought  that  it  would  have  been  sound  poHcy  to  encourage 
his  return  to  apparent  loyalty.  But,  like  Hamilton,  Holland's 
repentance  came  too  late,  and  arose  only  when  he  found  that 
what  his  alliance  with  the  popular  party  was  to  bring  him 
was  small  compared  with  that  which  it  had  cost  him.  His 
fatal  defect  was  one  with  which  Hyde  could  have  little 
sympathy  :  "  he  did  think  poverty  the  most  insupportable 
evil  that  could  befall  any  man  in  this  world."  The 
Royalist  who  recked  highly  of  wealth  was  likely  to  prove 
of  little  value  to  the  Royal  cause. 

Holland  would  readily  have  accepted  a  pardon,  at 
the  price  of  a  new  recantation,  but  the  opportunity  was  not 
allowed  him.  The  efforts  of  his  brother,  Lord  Warwick,  and 
the  zealous  intercession  of  the  Presbyterians,  who  looked  on 
him  as  a  champion  of  their  faith,  were  not  likely  to  weigh 
much  with  men  who  cared  little  for  Warwick's  rank, 
and  regarded  the  Presbyterians  as  dangerous  foes.  Even 
his  age  and  failing  health  did  not  suffice  to  stir  the  mercy  of 
those  whose  cause  he  had  deserted,  and  in  whose  hands  his 
fate  lay.    He,  like  Hamilton,  suffered  the  last  penalty. 

Norwich — whose  abilities  Hyde  doubted,  although  he  re- 
cognized the  rough  and  rather  reckless  loyalty  which  had 
instigated  him  to  the  revolt  in  Kent — was  more  fortunate  than 
Hamilton  or  Holland.     Personally  Norwich  had  few  enemies, 

VOL.  I.  y 


322  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

and  was  little  more  than  a  jovial  squire  whom  the  zeal  of  his 
friends  and  neighbours  had  thrust  into  a  task  of  knight 
errantry  for  which  he  had  little  capacity.  He  had  neither  the 
consummate  ability,  the  profound  skill  in  dissimulation,  nor 
the  turbulent  ambition,  that  made  Hyde  look  with  mingled 
astonishment  and  detestation  upon  his  son  Lord  Goring.  But 
neither  had  he  the  high  aims  or  heroic  bearing  of  the  nobler 
type  of  cavalier.  He  addressed  the  Court  "  as  a  man  that 
would  be  beholden  to  them  if  they  would  give  him  leave  to 
live  ;  "  and  mercy  was  granted  him  as  much,  perhaps,  from 
contempt,  as  from  the  friendliness  of  some  members  of  the 
Court. 

Lord  Capel,  that  friend  in  adversity  whom  Hyde  cherished 
with  the  warmest  love,  belonged  to  another  class  of  Royalist. 
No  purer  and  nobler  soul  had  entered  on  the  struggle.  He  had 
no  particular  regard  for  the  Court,  owed  little  to  its  favour, 
and  had,  by  inheritance  and  good  fortune,  all  that  could 
render  life  desirable,  in  wealth  and  station  as  well  as  in  a 
domestic  circle  of  rare  felicity.  When  the  issue  at  stake 
became  evident,  there  was  no  hesitation  on  the  part  of 
Capel.  He  saw  that  "  clear  path  before  him  "  which  his 
latest  letter  to  his  wife  tells  us  it  was  his  constant  desire  to 
follow  :  no  personal  loss,  no  hardship,  and  no  danger,  could 
for  an  instant  weigh  with  him  against  the  call  of  duty.  No 
ambition  entered  into  his  thoughts,  and  he  sought  only  to 
serve  the  King  without  claiming  any  part  in  his  counsels. 
Others  might  wrangle  and  look  jealously  upon  the  distribu- 
tion of  command  :  Capel's  only  object  was  to  do  his  duty 
as  a  loyal  subject,  at  whatever  cost  and  in  whatever  capacity. 
In  the  long  and  weary  days  in  the  west,  he  and  Hyde  had 
stood  together  as  faithful  allies  on  the  Council  of  the  Prince, 
and  had  done  what  they  could  to  check  the  evil  fruit  of 
selfish  faction  and  undisciplined  contention.  In  Jersey,  the 
cherished  companionship  of  Capel  and  Hopton  had  given  to 


1649]  LORD   CAPEL   CONDEMNED  323 

Hyde  the  two  years,  which,  in  spite  of  privations  and 
anxieties,  were  the  most  peaceful  period  in  his  long  exile. 

At  his  trial  Capel  contended  that,  as  a  prisoner  of  war, 
"  the  lawyers  and  gownsmen  had  nothing  to  do  with  him, 
and  therefore  he  would  not  answer  anything  they  had  said 
against  him."  Fairfax,  after  the  summary  execution  of 
Lisle  and  Lucas,  upon  the  capture  of  Colchester,  had  im- 
plicitly, if  not  in  express  words,  accepted  the  others  as 
surrendered  prisoners ;  and  he  stood  self-convicted  by 
prevarication  in  giving  evidence  on  the  matter.  No 
doubts  were  permitted  to  come  between  Capel's  enemies  and 
their  vindictive  lust  for  vengeance  ;  and  he  himself  was  not 
sorry  to  owe  nothing  to  their  mercy.  History  presents  few 
parallels  to  the  barbarous  cynicism  of  Cromwell's  argument 
against  any  such  leniency.  When  Lady  Capel's  petition  was 
under  discussion,  "  Cromwell,  who  had  known  him  very  well, 
spoke  so  much  good  of  him,  and  professed  to  have  so  much 
kindness  and  respect  for  him,  that  all  men  thought  he  was 
now  safe."  But  that  was  not  the  intention  of  Cromwell's 
praises.     He  went  on  to  say — 

"  that  he  knew  the  Lord  Capel  very  well,  and  knew  that  he 
would  be  the  last  man  in  England  that  would  forsake  the 
royal  interest :  that  he  had  great  courage,  industry  and 
generosity  :  that  he  had  many  friends  who  would  always 
adhere  to  him ;  and  that  as  long  as  he  lived,  what  condition 
soever  he  was  in,  he  would  be  a  thorn  in  their  sides ;  and  there- 
fore, for  the  good  of  the  Commonwealth,  he  should  give  his 
vote  against  the  petition." 

To  Cromwell's  cynicism  there  was  added  the  "  immortal 
hatred  "  of  Ireton,  "  who  spake  of  him  and  against  him  as  of 
a  man  of  whom  he  was  heartily  afraid."  Some  three  or 
four  voices  turned  the  scale  against  him ;  and  rarely  has  a  man, 
even  by  the  confession  of  his  enemies,  been  so  surely  done  to 
death  for  the  very  virtues  which  made  them  fear  him.     He 


324  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

died  as  nobly  as  he  had  hved  ;  and  Hyde's  eulogy  has  the 
eloquence  and  dignity  which  he  knew  so  well  to  impart  to 
it.  "  In  a  word,  he  was  a  man,  that  whoever  shall,  after 
him,  deserve  best  of  the  English  nation,  he  can  never  think 
himself  undervalued,  when  he  shall  hear  that  his  courage, 
virtue,  and  fidelity  is  laid  in  the  balance  with,  and  compared 
to,  that  of  the  Lord  Capel." 

Sir  John  Owen's  attitude  to  his  judges  was  worthy  of  a 
brave  man  who  had  ventured  all  for  his  King,  and  cared 
little  for  any  penalty  they  might  inflict.  "  It  was  a  great 
honour,"  he  said,  "  to  a  poor  gentleman  of  Wales  to  lose  his 
head  with  such  noble  lords."  His  careless  recklessness 
sufficed,  perhaps  with  the  help  of  his  inferior  station,  to  save 
him  from  the  full  fury  of  the  Court,  and  they  granted  him  a 
life  for  which  he  had  not  demeaned  himself  so  far  as  to 
petition. 

These  were  only  conspicuous  instances,  amongst  many, 
of  a  vengeance  which  was  inspired  in  the  Parliamentary 
leaders  not  by  vindictiveness  alone,  but  by  fear,  and  by  the 
consciousness  that  they  had  against  them  the  great  majority 
of  the  nation,  if  only  it  had  been  able  to  translate  its  feelings 
into  any  practical  shape.  For  Hyde,  these  deaths  meant  the 
passing  away  of  outstanding  figures  which  had  bulked  largely 
in  his  life  in  England,  and  whose  removal  added  a  new 
sense  of  loneliness  to  his  exile.  For  ten  years  more  we  have 
to  trace  his  action  amid  shifting  scenes,  far  away  from  the 
public  life  of  England,  steering,  as  best  he  might,  amidst 
the  tortuous  currents  and  eddies  of  the  exiled  Court :  eluding, 
as  far  as  he  could,  for  himself,  and  composing  for  others,  its 
perpetual  series  of  ignoble  quarrels  :  checking,  as  far  as 
possible,  rash  designs,  or  projects  which  would  have  Involved 
fatal  desertion  of  principle :  striving,  often  by  means  that 
a  proud  man  could  ill  brook,  to  gather  precarious  means  of 
subsistence  for  the  Court,  and  with  vain  efforts  to  introduce 


1649]       HYDE  IN  THE  EXILED  COURT  325 

some  semblance  of  order  into  its  expenditure  :  vexed  in  his 
soul  by  the  petty  caprices  of  the  Queen,  and  the  selfish 
intrigues  of  her  adherents  :  doing  his  best  to  maintain  the 
spirits,  and  at  the  same  time  to  curb  the  impatience,  of  the 
scattered  contingents  that  would  fain  have  aided,  but,  as  a 
fact,  often  hopelessly  embarrassed,  the  Royal  cause.  Out- 
wardly, during  these  weary  years,  Hyde  is  no  actor  in  Enghsh 
history  ;  he  is  at  best  the  distant  and  obscure  watcher, 
intent  on  guiding  through  the  breakers  the  very  frail  bark 
of  which  he  was  the  pilot.  His  influence  was,  however, 
noticed  sufficiently  to  make  him  the  ready  target  of  blame 
for  every  malcontent. 

The  period  which  intervened  between  the  disclosure  of 
the  fixed  intention  to  drive  matters  to  the  utmost  extremity 
against  the  King,  and  the  actual  commission  of  his  judicial 
murder,  had  been  short.  At  that  time  the  Queen  was  in 
Paris,  and  the  Prince  at  the  Hague.  Both  sent  urgent 
messages  which  received  no  attention  from  Parliament ;  and 
Prince  Charles  went  so  far  as  to  send  a  blank  sheet  of  paper 
with  his  seal  and  sign  manual,  upon  which  Parhament  might 
itself  enter  the  guarantees  for  constitutional  government 
which  they  might  exact  as  the  condition  of  sparing  his 
father's  life.  A  bargain  with  such  a  ratification  could,  of 
course,  have  had  no  legislative  importance,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  King  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  discoun- 
tenance any  such  compact.  But  none  the  less  the  impulse 
which  prompted  it  was  natural,  and  its  sincerity  is  open  to 
no  doubt.  When  the  blow  fell,  to  a  grim  political  outlook  for 
the  Prince  and  his  followers  there  was  added  poignant  grief 
for  an  irreparable  loss.  Amongst  many  virtues,  the  warmth 
of  his  domestic  affection  •;  was  not  the  least  conspicuous 
quality  of  Charles  I.'s  character.  His  family  life  had  been 
but  a  short  one.  The  circle  to  which  he  was  so  passionately 
devoted  was  soon  broken  by  the  ruthless  hand  of  civil  war, 


326  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

and  had  early  to  begin  their  painful  training  in  the  vicissi- 
tudes that  attend  helpless  and  needy  ahens  in  foreign  lands. 
Charles  II.  had  learned  to  "  put  off  the  boy  ;  "  and  if  the  ex- 
perience of  dealing  with  men  and  exercising  some  authority  in 
his  teens  had  given  him  an  insight  into  human  motives  beyond 
his  years,  the  rough  debauchery  of  the  camp  had  also  given 
him  a  certain  callousness  of  heart.  But  the  deep  affection 
of  his  father's  heart  left  its  impression  on  the  lives  of 
his  children ;  and  scattered  though  it  was,  that  wandering 
family  continued  to  be  bound  together  by  bonds  of  warm 
love  throughout  all  their  fortunes.  The  new  King  had 
need  of  all  his  courage  to  nerve  himself,  as  he  did  with 
sprightly  humour  and  indubitable  courage,  if  with  doubtful 
perseverance,  for  the  long  and  often  hopeless  struggle  that 
lay  before  him.  He  passed  through  the  fire  of  adversity 
with  less  scathe  than  was  afterwards  wrought  in  him  by  the 
sunshine  of  prosperity.  He  deserves  honour,  with  all  his 
faults,  for  never  having,  throughout  these  long  struggles, 
lost  his  happiness  of  humour,  his  buoyancy  of  courage,  his 
constant  kindliness  to  those  who  stood  round  him  in  mis- 
fortune, or — what  was  not  least  important — the  proper  sense 
of  his  own  dignity.  He  soon  heard  from  the  Queen,  whose 
grief,  whatever  its  intensity,  never  overcame  her  innate  love 
of  power.  With  that  sarcastic  humour  which  never  is 
quite  absent  when  Hyde  treats  of  the  Queen-Mother,  he  tells 
how,  "  notwithstanding  the  great  agony  she  was  in,  which 
without  doubt  was  as  great  a  passion  of  sorrow  as  she  was 
able  to  sustain,  she  at  once  wrote  to  urge  the  King's  return 
to  France,  and  desired  him  to  swear  none  to  be  of  his  Council 
till  she  could  speak  with  him."  The  King  was  ready  to 
pay  all  filial  respect  to  his  mother,  but  none  the  less  he  re- 
membered what  was  due  to  himself.  He  had  no  mind  to 
go  to  France,  and  there  to  renew  his  experiences  of  scant 
courtesy.     On  his  own  initiative,  he  named  his  Council,  and 


1649]      CHAKACTER   OF   THE  YOUNG   KING         327 

resolved,  for  the  present,  to  rest  his  dependence  on  the  Prince 
of  Orange — a  wise  and  a  kindly  Mentor.  His  father's 
advisers  still  commanded  his  confidence  and  respect.  From 
the  States  of  Holland,  where  the  influence  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange  was  still  high,  he  received  such  expressions  of  sym- 
pathy in  his  disasters  as  they  might  show  without  com- 
promising themselves  with  the  dominant  powers  in  England  ; 
but  he  knew  well  enough  how  Httle  he  could  rely  upon  any 
effective  help  from  them.  It  was  a  question  only  how  long 
he  would  be  allowed  to  enjoy  their  furtive  and  somewhat 
timid  hospitality. 

He  had  now  two  possible  places  of  refuge  to  look  to,  and 
from  both  there  came  pressing  invitations.  The  affairs  of 
Ireland  looked  promising  enough,  for  the  moment,  for  the 
Royalist  cause,  if  only  because  despair  had  taught  the  Irish 
how  little  mercy  they  were  like  to  find  at  the  hands  either 
of  Parliament  or  army.  The  Scots,  too,  were  incensed 
against  the  rough  action  of  the  Parliament.  They  had  no 
wish  to  fortify  an  overstrained  Royal  prerogative ;  but  the 
abolition  of  the  monarchy  and  the  extreme  measures  against 
the  King  were  not  only  a  violation  of  their  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  (which  recognized  the  maintenance  of  the  frame 
of  monarchical  government  as  a  religious  duty),  but  were 
alien  to  all  their  national  instincts.  Against  the  proceedings 
of  the  army  they  lodged  a  protest,  which  to  all  outward 
appearance  was  solemn  enough,  even  if  it  was  of  doubtful  sin- 
cerity, and  although  it  was  followed  by  no  effective  action. 
The  Scots  were  divided  amongst  themselves.  There  were 
amongst  them  those  who  would  have  given  an  ungrudging 
support  to  the  Royalist  cause.  Their  position  was  undermined 
by  the  tjreachery  of  Argyle,  who  affected  an  attachment  to 
the  monarchy,  yet  was  at  heart  the  close  ally  of  Cromwell, 
determined  to  allow  no  effective  authority  to  the  King.  He 
recognized  that  the  nation's  sympathy  with  its  traditional 


328  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

government  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  But  he  knew 
also  that  their  indomitable  attachment  to  their  own  Church 
would  make  Scotsmen  useful  instruments  in  curbing  the 
real  influence  of  the  Crown.  Argyle  was  compelled  to  join 
in  the  invitation  to  the  King  to  return  to  his  Scottish  people, 
but  he  managed  to  attach  to  that  invitation  conditions  which 
were  inconsistent  with  the  honour  of  the  King,  and  forced 
him  to  disown  his  father's  acts,  and  to  disavow  his  father's 
strongest  principles.  This  was  precisely  the  course  which 
Hyde  most  feared,  and  which  he  knew  would  be  most  fatal 
to  the  RoyaHst  cause  in  England ;  and  in  proportion  to  his 
suspicion  of  their  specious  offers,  Hyde's  inveterate  hatred 
of  the  Scots  increased.  Lauderdale  was  at  the  Hague  as 
the  avowed  emissary  of  Argyle.  Adroit,  arrogant,  and  over- 
bearing, he  was  determined  that  Charles's  return  should  be 
clogged  with  conditions  that  would  have  left  him  helpless  in 
the  hands  of  Argyle  and  himself.  Hyde  and  he  were  foes 
of  old,  and  their  terms  became  no  better  now,  even  if  an 
appearance  of  forbearance  was  necessary  for  the  moment. 

There  was,  however,  still  a  powerful  group  of  Scotsmen 
who  had  no  mind  to  weight  their  fidehty  to  the  Crown  with 
any  harsh  conditions.  Montrose  was  now  at  the  Hague, 
flushed  with  the  success  of  his  recent  campaign,  from  which 
he  had  been  recalled  only  by  the  authority  of  the  late  King. 
He  had  the  faults  of  his  qualities,  and  his  consciousness  of 
the  value  of  his  own  services  made  him  little  apt  to  yield  to 
those  whom  he  saw  to  be  enemies  in  disguise.  To  serve  the 
King  he  was  ready  to  forget  his  former  feuds,  and  to  make 
common  cause  with  all  in  Scotland  who  favoured  the 
monarchy.  But  for  him  it  was  not  to  be  a  monarchy  shorn 
of  all  its  attributes,  and  transformed  into  the  puppet  of 
Argyle.  He  offered  to  join  the  new  Duke  of  Hamilton — lately 
Earl  of  Lanark — who  had  now  succeeded  to  his  brother's 
title  and  estates,  and  to  his  influence  as  one  of  Scotland's 


JAMES    GRAHAM,    FIRST    MARQUIS    OF    MONTROSE, 

{From  the  original  by  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke.) 


1649]  EFFORTS   OF  MONTROSE  329 

most  conspicuous  leaders.  The  new  Duke  was  a  very 
different  man  from  his  brother,  whose  darker  spirit  and 
treacherous  character  had  hitherto  clouded  his  brother's 
life  by  their  baneful  influence.  He  had  no  love  for  Presby- 
tery, and  avowedly  repented  himself  of  the  sorry  part  that 
he  had  been  made  to  play.  Left  to  himself  he  would  not 
have  been  unwilling  to  join  Montrose,  and  prosecute  the 
Royalist  cause  as  his  ally.  But  Lauderdale  and  Argyle  stood 
successfully  in  his  way,  and  their  influence  fought  against 
the  more  generous  motives  that  inspired  Montrose,  and  might 
have  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  Hamilton.  Montrose  visited 
France  in  the  hope  that  he  might  have  the  support  of 
Queen  Henrietta,  and  might  induce  Mazarin  to  give  him 
effective  aid.  Hyde  explains,  in  another  of  his  sarcastic 
phrases,  the  position  of  the  Queen.  She  "  was  in  straits 
enough,  and  never  open-handed,  and  used  to  pay  the  best 
services  with  receiving  them  graciously,  and  looking  kindly 
upon  those  who  did  them.  And  her  graces  were  still  more 
towards  those  who  were  like  to  do  services,  than  to  those  who 
had  done  them " — in  other  words,  her  gratitude  was  a 
lively  sense  of  benefits  to  come.  Such  grudging  mood  was 
not  likely  to  captivate  the  ardent  spirit  of  Montrose,  nor  did 
he  find  that  Mazarin  was  inclined  to  risk  anything  for  the 
King.    He  had  to  seek  for  aid  elsewhere. 

Hyde  was  not  blind  to  the  faults  of  Montrose — to  his 
occasional  vanity,  and  to  the  rashness  which  often  marred 
his  romantic  chivalry.  But  he  was  strongly  inclined  to  see 
in  Montrose  the  central  pivot  of  Charles's  hopes  so  far  as 
Scotland  was  concerned.  Hyde  "  believed  his  Majesty  should 
bid  Montrose  very  welcome,  and  prefer  him  before  any  other 
of  that  nation  in  his  esteem."  As  he  expresses  it  again  in 
one  of  those  happy  phrases  which  show  Hyde's  unrivalled 
touch,  he  felt  with  those  who  "  believed  his  clear  spirit  to  be 
most  like  to  advance  the  King's  service."     He  did  all  he 


330  EXILE   AND  BROKEN  HOPES    [chap,  xii 

could  to  bring  Lauderdale  over  to  the  same  way  of  thinking, 
but  without  success.  Lauderdale  replied  by  adducing,  as 
unanswerable  objections,  Montrose's  "  barbarities  and  in- 
humanities." The  Highland  hordes,  upon  whose  fiery  bravery 
Montrose  had  had  to  depend,  did  not  certainly  carry  on  war 
in  any  gentle  manner.  On  the  battlefield  they  neither  gave, 
nor  asked  for,  quarter,  and  their  habits  taught  them  to  look 
upon  the  foe  who  met  them  in  the  field  as  one  who  was  to 
give  or  to  exact  expiation  for  a  long  tale  of  hereditary  clan 
feuds.  But  it  appeared  that  the  "  barbarities  "  consisted  in 
the  rough  vengeance  of  the  battle,  and  not  in  any  vindictive 
cruelties  done  in  cold  blood.  Scotland,  as  represented  by 
Lauderdale,  could  forgive  such  savage  reprisals  as  followed 
the  Parliamentary  victory  at  Philiphaugh,  but  not  such 
slaughter  on  the  battlefield  at  Inverlochy  as  cost  Argyle 
fifteen  hundred  of  his  clan  who  fell  before  Montrose's  High- 
land host,  while  Argyle  saved  himself  by  an  ignoble  flight. 
It  was  useless  to  argue  with  Lauderdale.  He  "  swore  with 
great  passion  "  that  he  had  sooner  never  see  the  King  restored 
than  that  James  Grahame  should  be  permitted  to  come  to 
Court.  Hamilton  would  have  been  willing,  had  he  been  free 
to  choose  his  own  course,  to  serve  with  Montrose.  But  he 
saw  that  such  an  alliance  would  lead  to  a  breach  with 
Argyle,  and  so  forbore. 

The  wrangle,  so  fatal  to  the  Royalist  cause,  continued  to 
rage  until  matters  were  made  worse  still  by  an  act  of  mis- 
guided folly,  in  which  Montrose's  followers  were  deeply 
involved.  A  certain  Dutchman,  named  Dorislaus,  a  native 
of  Delft,  had  long  resided  in  England,  had  been  appointed 
a  lecturer  at  Gresham  College,  and  had  afterwards  been 
attached  as  Judge-Advocate  to  the  army  of  Essex.  He  was 
now  in  favour  with  Cromwell,  and  arrived  at  the  Hague  as 
secret  envoy  to  arrange  terms  between  England  and  the 
States.     On    the  very  night  of   his    arrival,  the   house    of 


1649]  MURDEE  OF  DORISLAUS  331 

entertainment,  where  he  was  supping  in  company  with  those 
who  usually  resorted  there,  was  invaded  by  a  band  of  armed 
men.  They  made  no  secret  of  the  motive  of  their  irruption, 
and  met  with  no  resistance.  The  general  company  were 
bidden  not  to  stir ;  they  had  come  only  to  do  vengeance  on 
the  agent  of  the  rebels  in  England,  who  had  just  murdered 
their  King.  They  stabbed  him  to  death  on  the  spot,  and 
left  the  eating-house  at  their  leisure,  making  no  secret  of 
their  deed.  The  incident  shows  clearly  enough  what  the 
popular  feehng  at  the  Hague  was.  But  it  was  none  the  less 
desperately  embarrassing  to  the  States,  and  it  was  no  wonder 
that  they  found  the  King  a  guest  whom  they  would  willingly 
speed.  It  was  not  the  least  untoward  circumstance  that  the 
deed  had  been  done  by  Scotsmen,  and  these  the  servants  of 
the  Marquis  of  Montrose.  That  would  not  lessen  the  resent- 
ment of  the  new  Commonwealth  for  the  murder  of  their 
emissary. 

It  was  time  for  the  King  to  be  gone.  At  first  Ireland 
was  to  be  his  destination,  and  in  reliance  upon  the  promises 
he  had  received  he  resolved  to  try  his  fortunes  there.  The 
only  question  which  was  still  in  doubt  was  whether  he  should 
sail  direct  for  Ireland,  or  should,  in  response  to  the  urgent 
invitation  of  the  Queen,  visit  her  at  Paris  on  the  way.  The 
decision  involved  much.  To  Hyde  and  those  who  held  with 
him  that  the  Queen's  influence  was  detrimental  to  the  cause, 
the  opportunity  for  strengthening  that  influence  which  such 
a  visit  offered  was  distasteful.  They  well  knew  that  once 
more  the  Queen  would  press  the  expediency  of  coming  to 
terms  with  the  Scottish  Presbyterians.  To  her  Roman 
Catholic  advisers — above  all  to  the  new  pervert  Montague  ^ — 

'  Walter  Montague  was  the  younger  brother  of  Edward,  second  Earl  of 
Manchester.  Unlike  him  he  had  been  closely  attached  to  the  Court,  and 
had  been  employed  in  foreign  missions.  He  was  one  of  those  who  helped 
to  arrange  the  marriage  with  Henrietta  Maria,  and  this  had  brought  him 
into  close  relations  with  France,  and  made  him  the  friend  and  confidant 


332  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

it  mattered  little  that  one  form  of  heresy  should  be  balanced 
by  another.  Neither  Anghcan  Episcopacy  nor  Scottish 
Presbyterianism  was  to  be  valued  save  as  a  means  of  attaching 
adherents  to  the  Crown.  Hyde  detested  this  as  an  abandon- 
ment of  principle.  He  despised  it  as  a  piece  of  folly  which 
would  alienate  the  whole  strength  of  English  loyalty. 

Before  that  journey  to  Ireland — which  was  never  to  take 
place — could  be  arranged,  other  matters  supervened,  which 
directly  concerned  Hyde,  and  one  of  which,  by  separating 
him  from  the  King,  weakened  for  a  time  his  influence  over 
the  policy  of  the  exiled  Court,  Ireland  and  Scotland,  it  was 
felt,  might  be  convenient  footholds,  helping  towards  the 
recovery  of  the  Royalist  cause ;  but  meanwhile  was  it  wise 
to  submit  without  protest  to  the  present  management  of 
English  affairs  ?  Would  it  not  be  well  to  publish  a  Declara- 
tion, to  indicate  that  the  claims  of  the  King  were  not  in 
abeyance,  and  to  serve  as  a  rallying  cry  for  his  adherents  at 
home  ?  Ought  not  such  a  Declaration  to  indicate  a  certain 
policy  as  regards  religion,  and  the  terms  upon  which  an 
amnesty  might  heal  the  breaches  of  the  civil  war  ?  Who  were 
to  be  considered  as  enemies  beyond  pardon,  and  to  whom 
might  be  given  hopes  of  indemnity  which  might  induce 
them  to  join  in  resisting  the  usurping  Government  which 
their  own  acts  had  permitted  to  acquire  a  power  that  over- 
rode the  liberties  of  Englishmen  ? 

Hyde  rightly  judged  that  such  a  Declaration  might 
arouse  dangers  far  more  serious  than  those  it  sought  to  relieve. 
The  opinions  on  religion  varied  infinitely,  and  any  definite 
Declaration  would  either  disappoint  the  hopes  of  the  Presby- 
terians or  shock  the  deepest  feelings  of  the  Anglican  Royalists. 

of  the  Queen.  He  became  a  Roman  Catholic  in  1634.  At  a  later  day  he 
was  in  close  alliance  with  the  Royalist  party,  and  was  the  go-between  in 
an  attempt  to  procure  French  assistance  for  the  cause  of  the  King.  He  was 
imprisoned,  and  afterwards  banished  b}'  the  Parliament,  and  in  1647  became 
Abbot  of  St.  Martin's,  at  Pontoise.     He  died  in  1G77. 


1649]  AN   ABORTIVE   DECLARATION  333 

No  truce  could  honourably  be  made  with  the  regicides  ;  and 
beyond  the  confines  of  the  Regicide  Court  itself  there  were 
many  who  were  as  guilty  as,  or  more  guilty  than,  the  actual 
members  of  that  Court.  A  Declaration  as  to  forfeitures 
would  either  obliterate  the  hopes  of  the  despoiled  Royalists, 
or  array  against  the  King  a  powerful  body  of  those  who  did 
not  wish  to  see  a  restoration  of  the  Crown  if  that  were  to 
strip  them  of  all  that  they  had  gained.  Strangely  enough, 
although  it  was  Hyde  who  most  decidedly  shrank  from  any 
such  Declaration,  it  was  to  Hyde  that  all  looked  as  the  man 
most  fit  to  draft  it.  He  played  his  part  with  his  usual 
skill.  The  Declaration  was  drawn  up.  But  as  he  confidently 
anticipated,  it  revealed,  when  read,  as  many  different  opinions 
as  there  were  members  of  the  Council.  "  The  issue  was,  that, 
except  two  or  three  of  the  Council  .  .  .  there  were  not  two 
persons  who  were  admitted  to  the  perusal  of  it  who  did  not 
take  some  exception  to  it,  though  scarce  two  made  the  same 
exception."  Without  open  opposition,  which  would  only 
have  confirmed  the  more  obstinate,  Hyde  obtained  his  end. 
"  It  was  more  faintly  debated."  The  difficulties  became 
more  apparent.  At  length  "  the  Declaration  slept,  without 
further  proposition  to  emit  any."  Once  more  Hyde's  wary 
patience  had  saved  the  situation. 

But  another  plan  soon  removed  him  for  a  time  from 
attendance  on  the  King,  with  very  hurtful  results.  Cottington, 
the  aged  Lord  Treasurer,  devised  a  mission  which  seemed  to 
promise  good  results,  and  which  at  least  helped  Cottington 
to  a  post  which  accorded  with  his  own  tastes.  That  old  and 
shrewd  statesman  was  wearied  of  the  perpetual  wrangles  of 
the  Court.  His  age  prevented  him  from  indulging  hopes  of 
seeing  any  restoration  of  the  Crown,  Meanwhile  he  saw  a 
chance  of  aiding  the  cause  of  the  King,  and  at  any  rate  of 
allowing  Cottington  to  revisit  scenes  which  old  associations 
had  endeared  to  him,  and  to  draw  him  more  closely  into  the 


334  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

bonds  of  that  religion  to  which  he  had  always  felt  a  certain 
leaning.  For  long,  Cottington's  conformity  to  the  Protestant 
religion  had  been  formal  only  ;  and  a  full  reconciliation  to 
the  Catholic  faith  would  be  an  aid  to  that  easing  of  conscience 
towards  which  his  temperament  inclined  him.  He  had 
spent  long  years  in  Spain,  and  in  returning  there  again  he 
would  find  himself  at  home.  A  mission  to  Spain  might  help 
the  King's  resources,  and  strengthen  his  political  alliances  ; 
and  it  would,  at  all  events,  bring  Cottington  back  to  familiar 
scenes,  and  give  him  the  chance  of  ending  his  life  in  ease. 
He  suggested  to  Hyde  that  they  two  should  be  joined  in  an 
embassy  to  Spain.  If  it  did  not  help,  at  least  it  could  not 
hurt,  the  King.  For  himself  it  could  save  him  from  attending 
the  King  in  the  hazardous  scenes  that  seemed  to  lie  before 
him.  He  shrank  from  the  rigours  of  the  winter  in  Holland. 
In  France  he  would  lie  under  suspicion  as  one  pledged  of  old 
to  the  Spanish  alliance.  In  Spain  he  would  have  the  sun 
that  his  health  demanded,  and  he  would  be  amongst  friendly 
surroundings.  Cottington  was  one  of  those  who  generally 
found  that  their  duty  lay  where  their  inchnation  prompted. 

Hyde  saw  no  reason  to  doubt  the  possible  benefit  of  an 
application  to  Spain.  When  Cottington  first  proposed  that 
Hyde  himself  should  be  one  of  the  ambassadors  he  seemed 
to  Hyde  to  be  speaking  in  jest.  But  Cottington  returned  to 
the  subject.  Much  was  to  be  gained  by  the  mission,  of 
which  the  full  fruit  could  not  be  gathered  unless,  in  addition 
to  his  knowledge  of  the  country  and  the  language,  he  had 
Hyde's  wisdom  and  energy  to  help  his  own  failing  strength. 
The  King's  voyage  to  Ireland  was  not  likely  to  take  place 
very  soon,  if  he  was  to  be  subjected  to  the  dilatory  advice 
of  his  mother.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  might 
finish  his  work  in  Spain,  and  yet  be  ready  to  join  the  King 
as  soon  as  he  would  reach  Ireland.  There  was  much  to 
tempt  Hyde  to  accept  the  proposed  embassy.    He  was,  ill 


FRANCIS,  BARON  COTTINGTON. 

{From  the  criminal  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery.     Painter  unknoivn.) 


1649]  MISSION   TO   SPAIN  335 

at  ease  in  the  exiled  Court,  and  knew  that  he  could  count  on 
no  favour  from  the  Queen.  He  was  unwilling  to  desert  the 
King  in  his  need,  for  the  sake  of  any  personal  comfort ;  but 
he  was  so  far  persuaded  as  to  be  ready  to  refer  the  matter 
to  the  King  himself.  Cottington  knew  how  to  present  the 
matter  tactfully  to  the  King,  and  Hyde  found  that  Charles, 
when  he  first  spoke  of  it,  was  already  prepossessed  in  favour 
of  the  plan.  When  it  was  generally  known  in  the  exiled 
Court,  it  provoked  the  usual  crop  of  jealousies.  Only  the 
dominant  Scotch  faction  were  content,  knowing  that  Hyde's 
removal  would  free  them  from  the  most  pronounced  opponent 
of  acceptance  by  the  King  of  their  invitation,  on  the  terms 
of  a  ratification  of  the  Covenant ;  and  that  his  absence 
would  at  the  same  time  lessen  the  favour  shown  to  their  old 
enemy,  Montrose.  Colepepper  was,  as  usual,  angry  that  he 
had  not  been  preferred  to  Hyde  for  such  a  mission  ;  but 
Cottington  was  shrewd  enough  to  dechne  such  a  troublesome 
companion.  The  matter  was  then  settled  ;  perhaps  with 
some  doubts  on  Hyde's  part  as  to  its  expediency  in  the  King's 
interest,  but  with  full  satisfaction  to  himself.  He  was  not 
sorry  to  be  away  from  his  present  surroundings,  and  he 
promised  himself  a  new  and  refreshing  experience  in  this 
mission  to  which,  in  later  years,  he  looked  back  as  his 
second  period  of  "  retreat."  To  prepare  for  it,  he  sent  for 
his  wife  and  children  from  England,  and  proposed  to  settle 
them  during  his  absence  in  the  security  of  Antwerp,  where  he 
had  influence  enough  to  make  their  sojourn  pleasant. 

When  he  had  arranged  for  his  family,  Hyde's  next  business 
was  to  provide  for  his  own  journey  ;  and  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  means  could  be  gathered  to  furnish  the  embassy  even 
with  a  semblance  of  becoming  state.  The  Prince  of  Orange 
advanced — out  of  his  own  rather  scanty  resources — twenty 
thousand  pounds  to  the  King  ;  and  out  of  this  Hyde  and 
Cottington  received  only  what  was  enough  to  defray  their 


336  EXILE   AND   BKOKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

preliminary  expenses.  For  the  rest  they  had  to  trust  to 
their  own  contrivance.  They  took  leave  of  the  King  in 
May,  1649,  and  were  conveyed  in  the  yacht  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange  to  Antwerp,  where  Hyde  met  his  wife  and  family  ; 
and  after  spending  some  days  there  they  proceeded  to  Brussels, 
where  they  met  the  Spanish  plenipotentiary,  Le  Brune, 
already  on  his  way  to  visit  Charles  II.  They  sought  audiences 
of  the  Archduke  and  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who  was  then 
at  the  head  of  a  large  army,  levied  to  support  Spain  against 
France.  From  the  Archduke  they  obtained  little  help. 
The  Duke  of  Lorraine  was  then  high  in  the  esteem  and  in  the 
Councils  of  Spain,  to  which  his  vigorous  aid  was  of  supreme 
importance.  With  full  capacity  to  maintain  his  dignity 
when  needful,  the  Duke  lived,  with  little  state,  and  in  the 
frankest  and  most  jovial  intimacy  with  the  citizens  of  Brussels 
and  their  wives.  He  received  the  ambassadors  cordially — 
perhaps  induced  to  do  so  by  the  friendly  introduction  of 
Le  Brune  ;  and  in  spite  of  his  proverbial  thrift,  Cottington's 
tact  managed  to  procure  from  him  a  much-needed  loan  of 
two  thousand  pistoles.  Never  was  embassy  put  to  more 
degrading  shifts  than  this  of  Cottington  and  Hyde.  From 
Count  Pignoranda  and  Count  Fuensaldagna,  who  might  be 
supposed  to  represent  the  feelings  of  the  Spanish  Court,  the 
ambassadors  received  civihty,  but  nothing  more.  They 
learned  enough  to  show  them  that  their  visit  to  Madrid 
might  not  be  very  welcome. 

Meanwhile  the  King  had  begun  his  journey  to  Ireland, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  was  to  visit  the  Queen.  He  pro- 
ceeded first  to  Breda,  thence  to  Antwerp,  and  so  by  Brussels 
and  Cambray  made  his  journey  towards  St.  Germains. 
At  each  place  he  was  received  with  the  respect  due  to  his 
rank.  Le  Brune  had  met  him  with  friendly  messages  at 
Breda,  and  the  Count  Pignoranda  paid  him  his  respects 
at  Antwerp.     But   the  journey,  which    took   him  through 


1649]  HYDE   AND   THE   QUEEN  337 

different  territories,  which  were  actually  at  war,  was  a 
hazardous  one,  and  in  his  various  encounters  the  King  must 
have  felt  that  he  was  treading  on  delicate  ground,  and  that 
it  was  difficult  to  guess  how  much  of  cordial  feeling  lay 
beneath  the  show  of  civility. 

Cottington  and  Hyde,  who  had  come  so  far  on  their  way 
to  Spain,  arrived  at  St.  Germains  soon  after  the  King  had 
joined  his  mother  there.     The  situation  was  a  perplexing 
one ;   and  the  factions  and  jealousies  which  had  been  rife  at 
the  Hague  were  redoubled  here  by  the  added  elements  of 
dissension  arising  in  the  Court  of  the  Queen.     The  circum- 
stances under  which  mother  and  son  now  met  after  years  of 
separation  were  tragic  enough.     The  grief,  which  on  both 
sides  was  probably  sincere,  claimed  the  first  two  or  three 
days  ;    but  after  that,  the  grievances  of  the  Queen  and  the 
anger  arising   from  her  frustrated  ambition  had  full  play. 
She  insisted  upon  discussing  all  political  plans,  and  was 
bitterly  disappointed  when,  instead  of  complete  resignation 
to  her  advice,  she  found  the  King  reserved.     He  told  her 
plainly  that  while  he  would  perform  his  duty  towards  her 
"  with  great  affection  and  exactness,  he  must  in  his  business 
obey    his    own    reason    and    judgment."     Her    passionate 
expostulations,  which  broke  out  at  each  interview,  he  met 
by  abrupt  withdrawals,  and  it  soon  became  clear  that  no 
very  cordial  relations  could  be  maintained  until  the  Queen 
understood  and  accepted  the  new  position  of  affairs,  and 
learned  that  the  duty  of  a  son  did  not  imply  the  resigning, 
or  even  the  sharing  of,  his  authority  by  the  King. 

It  was  against  Hyde  that  the  Queen  had  always  charged 
the  lessening  of  her  authority ;  strangely  enough,  it  was  to 
Hyde  that  she  now  resorted  in  her  trouble.  She  felt  that 
the  lowering  of  her  position  had  been  carried  further  than 
Hyde  would  have  desired,  and  that  other  and  more  hostile 
forces  must  be  at  work  to  undermine  her  influence.     Thomas 

VOL.  I.  z 


338  EXILE  AND  BROKEN  HOPES      [chap,  xii 

Elliot,  whom  Charles  I.  had  formerly  dismissed  from  atten- 
dance on  the  Prince,  had  now  recovered  his  influence  over 
Charles  IL,  and  had  lately  joined  the  Court  as  one  of  the 
Grooms  of  the  Bedchamber.  He  made  the  most  of  such 
authority  as  he  had  over  the  King,  and  took  no  pains  to 
conceal  his  scanty  regard  either  for  the  late  King  or  the  Queen. 
He  contrived  to  insinuate  to  the  King  that  he  would  lose 
popularity  "  if  he  were  thought  to  be  governed  by  his  mother." 
In  other  words,  he  infused  into  the  mind  of  Charles  a  motive 
of  petty  personal  pride,  in  place  of  the  grave  and  moderating 
guidance  of  public  duty,  as  the  controlling  influence  in  his 
relations  to  the  Queen.  He  managed  to  estrange  the  affec- 
tions of  the  King  from  the  Earl  of  Bristol  and  his  son.  Lord 
Digby.  His  insolence  grew  ;  and  as  the  dispenser  of  favours, 
he  contrived  to  persuade  Charles  to  nominate  Colonel 
Windham  as  Secretary  of  State.  Windham's  sole  qualifica- 
tions for  the  post  were  that  he  was  father-in-law  to  Elliot, 
and  that  his  wife  had  been  Charles's  nurse.  We  have  already 
seen  that  the  family  had  given  Hyde  some  trouble.^ 

All  this  had  embittered  the  feuds  at  Court,  already  violent 
enough.  Hyde  found  himself  at  once  appealed  to.  Bristol 
and  Digby  breathed  out  their  griefs  to  him  and  Cottington. 
The  King  recounted  his  annoyances  with  his  mother's 
grasping  ambition ;  the  Queen  poured  forth  her  anger  at 
his  lack  of  reverence  and  even  of  filial  duty.  She  was 
exposed  to  the  insolence  of  the  upstart  ElHot,  whom  her 
husband  had  detested  ;  and  knew  that  with  Windham  as 
Secretary,  she  would  have  another  implacable  enemy  in  the 
confidence  of  the  King.  For  this  occasion  she  was  content 
to  have  Hyde's  assistance,  and  assured  him  how  fully  she 
recognized  his  faithful  service,  and  how  well  she  knew  the 
confidence  her  husband  had  always  placed  in  him. 

Hyde  carried  her  tale  of  grievances  to  the  King,  who  was 

'  See  ante,  p.  263. 


1049]  COTTINGTON'S   INTERVENTION  339 

only  too  ready  to  have  a  wise  and  kindly  arbitrator.  He 
desired,  he  said,  nothing  better  than  to  live  on  good  terms 
with  his  mother,  but  on  business  he  must  be  reserved.  Her 
hostility  against  Elliot  and  Windham  was  ill-founded  and 
unjust.  Windham,  he  declared,  would  soon  learn  the  little 
business  that  had  to  be  done  as  Secretary.  Hyde  could  only 
counsel  some  delay.  It  was  left  to  Cottington's  happy  tact 
to  devise  a  means  of  diverting  Charles's  purpose.  Hard 
argument  had  httle  weight  with  the  King,  but  he  did  not 
lack  the  sense  of  humour.  Cottington  did  not  imitate  the 
grave  advice  of  Hyde,  or  the  angry  protests  of  the  Queen  and 
Digby.     He  attacked  the  difficulty  in  another  way. 

"  Very  gravely  "  (according  to  his  custom  who  never 
smiled  when  he  made  others  merry)  "  he  made  a  suit  to  the 
King  on  behalf  of  an  old  servant,  who  was,  as  he  verily 
believed,  one  of  the  best  falconers  in  England.  The  King 
asked  what  he  could  do  for  the  man.  Cottington  recognized 
that  the  King  was  in  no  position  to  keep  falconers,  and  if 
he  were,  the  old  man  was  past  his  work.  But  he  was  an 
honest  man,  and  could  read  well  and  audibly  ;  so  he  begged 
that  his  Majesty  would  make  him  his  chaplain.  So  earnestly 
was  this  said  that  the  King  asked  him,  with  a  smile,  what  he 
meant.  '  The  falconer,'  said  Cottington,  *  was  as  fit  to  be 
chaplain  as  Windham  was  to  be  Secretary  of  State.'  " 

This  produced  an  involuntary  laugh  from  those  who 
heard  it,  and  the  matter  was  settled.  The  project  of  Wind- 
ham's secretaryship  was  quietly  dropped. 

The  wrangles  and  disputes  in  the  exiled  Court  were 
silenced,  if  not  ended,  by  the  pressure  of  adversity.  Charles 
was  on  the  eve  of  starting  for  Ireland,  in  response  to  the  opti- 
mistic reports  that  told  him  he  had  only  to  appear  there  to  be 
received  with  acclamation.  Those  who  were  to  prepare  his 
way  had  already  sailed,  and  his  own  baggage  had  gone  ahead 
But  stern  facts  were  beforehand  with  him.     Cromwell  had 


340  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

crossed  to  Ireland  as  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  only  a  short 
space  of  time  placed  the  country  completely  at  his  mercy, 
and  made  it  hopeless  for  the  King  to  go  there  with  the  aim 
of  reviving  the  Royalist  cause.  Some  other  destination  must 
be  found,  and  the  settlement  of  the  place  for  his  new 
attempt  must  be  postponed.  Patience  must  again  be 
exercised,  and  the  turn  of  affairs  must  be  awaited.  But  he 
could  no  longer  stay  at  St.  Germains,  and  so  moved  to 
Jersey,  where,  for  a  time  at  least,  he  could  hope  for  some 
security. 

Cottington  and  Hyde  were  left  to  carry  out  their  mission 
to  Spain,  and  it  was  with  no  high  hopes  that  they  set  out 
upon  the  task.  They  sent  a  message  for  a  pass  to  Madrid  to 
meet  them  at  St.  Sebastian,  and  sought  to  engage  a  house 
in  the  Spanish  capital.  Sir  Benjamin  Wright,  an  English 
merchant  there,  was  to  do  his  best  to  ascertain  the  temper 
of  the  Spanish  Court.  While  at  Paris  they  had  asked 
audiences  from  the  Queen-Mother  of  France,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  Prince  Conde,  and  Cardinal  Mazarin.  The  Duke 
and  Prince  Conde  were  then  in  active  opposition  to  Mazarin, 
and  it  was  no  easy  task  to  enlist  the  favour  of  powers  so 
vigorously  hostile  to  one  another.  The  Queen-Mother  was 
content  to  send  by  them  a  message  of  good-will  to  the  King 
of  Spain.  Orleans  refused  even  that  much,  and  roughly 
told  them  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  Spain.  Conde 
excused  himself  from  seeing  them,  and  the  Cardinal  sent  a 
message  to  Don  Lewis  de  Haro,  the  chief  minister  of  Spain, 
proffering  his  own  earnest  services  to  secure  a  peace  with 
Spain — a  message  which,  when  it  was  accepted  by  Don 
Lewis,  the  Cardinal  shamelessly  disavowed.  Hardly  a  send- 
off  which  could  enhance  their  estimation  as  ambassadors  ! 

At  the  end  of  September  they  set  out  upon  their  journey. 

'  There  is  a  very  interesting  journal  of  the  embassy,  and  of  all  its  incidents, 
in  a  note-book,  written  by  William  Edgeman,  Hyde's  secretary,  and  now 


1649]  HYDE   REACHES  SPAIN  341 

At  Bordeaux  they  found  hostilities  in  active  progress  between 
the  people  and  the  royal  Government,  and  had  hard  work  to 
make  their  way  onward  amid  the  clash  of  armed  forces. 
From  Bordeaux  they  proceeded  to  Bayonne,  and  passing 
through  St.  Jean  de  Luz,  they  took  boat,  three  weeks  after 
leaving  Paris,  to  cross  into  Spanish  territory,  and  announced 
their  arrival  to  the  Governor  of  St.  Sebastian.  At  Fontarabia 
and  its  neighbourhood  they  saw  the  ruins  wrought  by  recent 
war.  At  Gerona,  in  spite  of  alarms  of  war,  the  inquisitors 
found  time  to  visit  their  lodgings  soon  after  their  arrival  and 
search  their  books  and  papers  ;  but  the  stem  demands  of 
the  censor,  although  pressed  by  a  priest  "  of  a  large  size  and 
a  very  barbarous  aspect  and  behaviour,"  were  easily  settled 
by  a  small  douceur.  At  St.  Sebastian  they  found  a  more 
courteous  reception,  and  were  left  in  quiet  at  the  lodgings  duly 
provided  for  them. 

But  news  soon  reached  them  which  showed  the  difficulties 
that  would  have  to  be  met,  and  the  small  respect  which  was 
to  be  paid  to  the  exiled  Court  and  to  the  claims  of  the  King. 
It  was  evidently  thought  to  be  a  hazardous  matter  to  give 
recognition  to  any  opposition  to  the  new  Commonwealth. 
The  chief  magistrate  called,  and  with  due  apologies  showed 
them  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  which  he  was 
told  to  receive  "  the  ambassadors  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  " 
with  all  respect,  but  if  possible  to  persuade  them  to  stay 
where  they  were,  until  further  instructions  were  received. 
They  received  also  a  letter  from  Sir  Benjamin  Wright,  in 
which  he  told  them  that  their  pass  to  Madrid  was  made  out 
only  under  the  same  designation,  and  that  delay  had  occurred 
in  providing  lodgings  for  them  in  Madrid.  To  show  im- 
patience might  involve  the  hopeless  failure  of  their  mission  ; 

preserved  amongst  the  Clarendon  MSS.  in  the  Bodleian.  It  begins  on  May 
27,  1649,  and  ends  on  November  11,  1054,  and  its  account  tallies  so  closely 
with  Hyde's  that  we  may  well  suppose  that  the  Chancellor  borrowed  the 
book  to  refresh  his  own  memory. 


342  EXILE   AND   BKOKEN   HOPES    [chap,  xii 

but  it  was  impossible  to  accept  the  character  of  ambassadors 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  To  abandon  the  proper  designation 
of  their  master  was  equivalent  to  a  surrender  of  his  rights. 
They  at  once  announced  that  while  they  might  delay  their 
journey  to  Madrid,  they  must  insist  on  being  received  as  the 
ambassadors  of  the  King,  or  must  at  once  return.  The  reply 
showed  how  shifty  the  policy  of  the  Spanish  Court  was. 
Don  Lewis  de  Haro  apologized  for  the  error,  and  imputed  it 
to  the  negligence  of  the  Secretary.  Passes  were  sent  in 
proper  style,  and  they  were  "  assured  of  a  very  good  welcome 
from  his  Majesty."  Such  vacillation,  if  it  showed  some 
recognition  of  the  hopes  of  the  EoyaHst  party,  yet  gave  little 
expectation  of  effective  assistance. 

Sir  Benjamin  Wright  at  the  same  time  wrote  to  announce 
that  steps  were  being  taken  to  provide  a  house,  and  that 
other  preparations  were  being  made  for  their  reception.  In 
November  they  left  St.  Sebastian  and,  passing  into  Castile, 
they  made  a  stay  at  Burgos,  to  view  the  bull-fight  at  the 
invitation  of  the  magistrates.  The  authorities  were  evidently 
determined  that,  so  far  as  mere  courtesy  went,  nothing  should 
be  markedly  omitted. 

When  they  reached  the  neighbourhood  of  Madrid,  they 
paused  in  their  journey  until  they  should  hear  more  from 
Sir  Benjamin  Wright ;  when  he  met  them,  it  was  to  tell 
them  that  matters  were  no  farther  advanced.  Polite 
evasions  were  all  that  could  be  extorted  from  Don  Lewis. 
It  was  clear  that  Cardenas,  the  ambassador  in  England,  had 
contrived  to  inspire  the  Spanish  Court  with  fears  of  rousing 
the  enmity  of  Cromwell  by  any  concessions  to  the  emissaries 
of  Charles.  They  were  obliged  to  avail  themselves  of  Sir 
Benjamin's  hospitality,  and  to  him  alone  they  were  indebted 
for  the  power  of  maintaining  a  semblance  of  proper  dignity, 
although  their  formal  reception  by  the  Court  was  still  delayed. 
The  utmost  they  could  obtain  was  a  meeting  with  Don 


1650]  AT   MADRID  343 

Lewis  incognito,  without  any  formal  ceremony.  At  that 
interview  he  expressed  his  sympathy  with  the  sufferings  of 
the  Enghsh  Court,  and  promised  more  attention  when  the 
festivities,  on  account  of  the  approaching  royal  marriage, 
were  over.^  An  invitation  to  the  ambassadors  to  attend  the 
great  bull-fight,  in  honour  of  the  marriage,  was  sent  as  a 
pledge  of  his  good  intentions.  Don  Lewis's  object  was  only 
to  gain  time,  in  order  to  judge  of  the  turn  of  affairs. 

They  accepted  the  invitation,  more  from  a  wish  not  to 
reject  any  show  of  civility  than  because  such  a  ceremony 
suited  either  their  taste  or  their  present  circumstances,  and 
Hyde  thus  saw  the  national  sport  in  all  its  savage  repulsive- 
ness.  It  was  evidently  unpleasing  to  him,  and  he  recounts 
with  repugnance  its  sanguinary  results — some  sixteen  horses 
brutahy  done  to  death,  and  four  or  five  men  killed,  besides 
a  large  number  seriously  injured.  He  tells  us  how  deeply 
the  love  of  such  spectacles  had  penetrated  the  people,  and  how 
the  power  of  the  King  himself — even  had  he  not  personally 
patronized  it — could  not  have  extirpated  it.  Even  the 
unrepealed  Bull  of  Pius  V.  failed  to  prevent  the  presence  of 
the  clergy,  although  in  that  Bull  it  was  prohibited  on  pain 
of  excommunication.  Hyde  had  enough  of  the  philosopher 
in  his  composition  not  to  remit  his  observation  on  a  strange 
freak  of  national  manners,  from  any  preoccupation  about  the 
snares  that  lay  about  his  mission.^ 

'  The  marriage  of  Philip  IV.,  who  wag  a  widower,  to  Marie  Anne,  the 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  III. 

-  Even  in  trifies  it  is  amusing  to  observe  how  Professor  Gardiner  never 
omits  an  opportunity  of  belittling  Hyde.  There  had,  it  appears,  been  some 
talk  of  the  ambassadors  witnessing  an  nulo  de  fi>,  although  the  sugges- 
tion was  abandoned.  Gardiner,  in  speaking  of  Hyde's  leaving  Spain,  records 
it  thus :  "  Hyde,  who  earlier  in  the  year  had  been  baffled  in  an  attempt 
to  witness  an  auto  de  ft',  had  now  to  leave  without  an  opportunity  of  adding 
so  edifying  a  spectacle  to  his  memories  of  travel"  (Commonwealth,  i.  344). 
This  unworthy  taunt  is  based  only  upon  the  statement  in  Edgeman's 
Journal  that  the  presence  of  the  ambassadors  at  such  a  scene  had  been 
thought  of,  but  that  "  the  journey  was  put  off,  to  his  (Edgeman's)  great 
regret." 


344  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

It  was  a  proof  that  opinion  throughout  Europe  was  still 
in  suspense  as  regards  events  in  England,  that  the  other 
ambassadors  at  Madrid  showed  no  backwardness  in  paying 
their  respects.  Until  the  reception  by  the  King,  such  visits 
were  informal ;  but  they  were  none  the  less  an  indication  of 
some  cordiality  of  feeling.  It  gave  to  Hyde  new  oppor- 
tunities of  studying  upon  a  wider  stage  than  any  he  had  yet 
moved  in,  the  personal  pecuharities  of  many  of  those  who 
were  dominant  figures  in  the  politics  of  Europe. 

But  an  audience  must  be  pressed  for,  and  was  at  length 
conceded.  Hyde  hoped  that  such  an  audience  might  help 
to  smooth  more  material  matters.  A  preliminary  difficulty 
arose  as  to  the  reception  of  the  ambassadors  in  mourning  dress, 
which  was  evidently  that  becoming  in  the  circumstances,  but 
might  perhaps  have  committed  the  Spanish  King  further  than 
was  safe.  The  excuse  of  the  marriage  festivities  served 
as  a  ground  for  dispensing  for  the  day  with  the  emblems 
of  mourning,  and  this  concession  the  ambassadors  deemed  it 
expedient  to  make.  Each  step  in  the  conduct  of  an  embassy, 
which  was,  as  it  turned  out,  the  only  formal  mission  of  the 
sort  ever  sent  by  Charles  to  any  Court  during  his  exile,  craved 
the  most  wary  management;  and  great  dexterity  was,  above 
all,  essential  in  a  Court  which  demanded  such  exact  obedience 
to  formal  ceremonial,  as  did  that  of  Spain. 

When  the  audience  was  fixed,  horses  were  sent  from  the 
Court,  that  the  ambassadors,  according  to  the  rule  for  the 
first  audience,  should  ride  to  Court.  Attended  by  their 
servants,  and  by  a  numerous  suite  of  English  merchants, 
and  of  Irish  officers  in  the  Spanish  army,  Hyde  and  Cottington 
proceeded,  with  a  large  cavalcade,  to  the  presence  of  the 
King.  They  were  received  with  all  respect,  and  presented 
their  credentials.  The  King  expressed  "  a  very  tender 
sense  "  of  his  royal  brother's  condition,  and  properly  lamented 
the  impious  rebellion  against  his  father.    His  own  affairs. 


1650]  THE   COURT   OF  SPAIN  345 

alas  !  prevented  his  power  of  interference  ;  but  were  a  peace 
arranged  with  France,  his  cousin  of  England  would  find  all 
the  readiness  to  help  his  cause  that  he  could  desire.  This  was 
a  useful  hint  as  to  gratitude  which  would  be  earned  by  any 
good  offices  at  the  Court  of  France.  The  rest  of  the  audience 
consisted  of  more  free  discourse  as  to  current  topics. 

Inconclusive  as  it  was,  the  interview  produced  certain 
effects.  The  ambassadors  were  provided  with  a  house,  and 
a  royal  coach  was  assigned  them.  They  had  obtained,  as 
the  representatives  of  Charles,  a  position  before  the  world 
that  at  least  preserved  them  from  any  sordid  indignity  or 
contempt.  They  did  not  cease  to  prosecute  their  objects 
amid  the  unfamiliar  surroundings  of  the  Spanish  Court ;  and 
had  useful  aid  from  a  son  of  Windebanke,  the  former  English 
Secretary  of  State,  a  young  man  then  living  in  Spain,  and 
able,  from  his  father's  former  relations  there,  to  maintain 
some  sort  of  connection  with  the  Court.  Wright  still  con- 
tinued to  be  their  almoner,  and  to  help  them  in  the  manage- 
ment of  their  modest  establishment.  Hyde  could  always 
beguile  his  tedium  by  studying  the  strange  methods  of  the 
Spanish  Council  and  pourtraying  the  characters  of  those 
who  composed  it.  In  a  few  words  he  has  painted  for  us 
Don  Lewis,  called  to  power  by  no  personal  ability  or 
persevering  ambition,  but  by  the  accidental  friendship  of 
the  King ;  with  fair  industry,  the  more  commendable  that 
it  was  against  his  own  inclination  ;  honest  and  well-natured, 
but  with  few  gifts  either  natural  or  acquired  ;  with  none  of 
the  confidence  that  comes  from  consciousness  of  power,  and 
weighed  down  by  the  melanchohc  hypochondria  to  which  his 
nation  was  no  stranger,  and  to  which  the  circumstances  of 
his  country  gave  only  too  much  ground.  With  her  power 
shattered  and  her  national  genius  decadent,  Spain  for  her 
revival  demanded  a  state:<man  of  genius,  and  a  generation 
later  she  seemed  almost  to  have  found  one.      But  now  her 


346  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

destiny  was  in  the  hands  of  a  timid,  shifty,  and  melancholy 
dullard,  with  no  arts  of  popularity  and  no  spring  of  courage. 
The  rest  of  the  Council  were,  as  a  rule,  fit  colleagues  for  such 
a  premier.  The  impression  Hyde  gives  us  of  them  is  that 
of  a  group  of  solemn,  peevish,  doubtfully  honest,  and  generally 
decrepit,  grandees.  The  son  of  the  modest  country  gentleman 
who  felt  within  himself  the  power,  and  who,  even  in  adverse 
currents,  was  already  forced  to  accept  the  burden,  of  guiding 
State  affairs  in  a  desperate  crisis,  was  not  hkely  to  feel  much 
admiration  for  such  relics  of  a  decayed  aristocracy. 

The  ambassadors  resolved  to  make  a  new  effort  to  press 
their  master's  affairs,  and,  at  a  private  audience  of  the  King, 
they  proposed  a  renewal  of  the  treaty  between  the  Crowns, 
and  urged  the  assistance  Spain  might  render  to  the  Royalist 
cause  in  Ireland.  The  answer  they  received,  after  due 
consideration,  postponed  the  renewal  of  the  treaty  "  until 
times  should  mend,"  and  gave  little  prospect  of  efficacious 
help  in  Ireland.  It  remained  only  to  prosecute  their  attempt 
to  gain  some  little  assistance  in  money  or  arms  from  the 
scanty  resources,  and  grudging  benevolence,  of  the  Spanish 
Crown.  That  was  clearly  a  matter  which  could  not  be  hurried, 
and  to  pass  the  time  of  waiting,  Hyde,  with  his  usual  untiring 
industry,  betook  himself  to  the  study  of  Spanish  literature, 
and  took  up  again  the  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  which  he 
had  begun  in  Jersey. 

A  momentary  gleam  of  hope  came  to  their  mission  from 
the  sudden  appearance  of  Prince  Rupert  with  his  fleet  upon 
the  coast  of  Spain.  This  was  a  solid  evidence  of  power  that 
outweighed  many  subtle  calculations  of  policy  with  a  crew 
of  craven  time-servers,  and  the  ambassadors  found  a  new 
cordiality  extended  to  them,  as  the  plenipotentiaries  of  a 
titular  sovereign  who  could  adduce  such  proofs  of  his 
authority.  The  governors  of  the  ports  were  ordered  to  open 
them  freely  to  the  fleet,  and  the  utmost  readiness  was  shown 


1G50]  DELUSIVE   HOPES  347 

to  extend  assistance  to  a  cause  that  appeared  so  able  to 
dispense  with  it. 

"  But,"  says  Hyde  sadly,  "  the  Government  of  these 
benign  stars  was  very  short."  The  Prince's  fleet  was  stronger 
in  appearance  than  reahty.  Rupert  lost  in  a  storm  at  Car- 
thagena  a  large  contingent  of  his  fleet,  and  took  refuge 
with  the  rest  at  Lisbon.  Popham  soon  appeared  off  the 
coast  with  a  far  stronger  fleet  belonging  to  the  English 
Commonwealth,  and  sent  his  demands  in  no  timid  tone  to 
the  Government  of  Spain.  His  masters  "  were  willing  to  live 
in  amity  and  good  intelligence  with  his  Catholic  majesty,  but 
knew  very  well  how  to  do  themselves  right  for  any  injury  or 
discourtesy  which  they  should  sustain."  The  beams  of  tem- 
porizing civility  which  shone  on  Hyde  and  Cottington  were 
soon  dispersed  ;  and  another  state  of  things  accrued  when 
Rupert  was  confined  to  the  rivers  of  Portugal,  and  saw  himself 
forced  to  try  conclusions  with  a  much  superior  fleet.  All  that 
he  could  obtain  was  to  be  allowed  a  day's  start  of  Popham  ; 
and  Popham,  with  his  prey  snatched  from  his  clutches,  took 
ample  vengeance  upon  the  weakness  of  Portugal.  Only  a 
little  later  Hyde  and  Cottington  learned  that  Charles  had 
been  forced  to  abandon  his  hopes  of  a  successful  rising  in 
Ireland,  and  that  he  had  laid  aside  his  purpose  of  going  there. 
Cromwell  now  held  Ireland  in  a  firm  grasp,  and  had  estab- 
lished his  domination  by  a  ruthless  cruelty  that  has  rarely 
been  paralleled  in  the  annals  of  civihzed  warfare.  Some 
other  scene  had  to  be  found  for  any  attempt  to  revive 
Royalist  hopes  ;  and  never  were  Hyde's  presence  and  advice 
more  urgently  required  by  the  King  than  now,  while  he  and 
Cottington  were  vainly  attempting  to  arouse  a  feeble  interest 
in,  and  elicit  a  scanty  measure  of  assistance  from,  a  crafty 
and  timid  ally  abroad. 

In  Scotland  there  still  appeared  to  be  a  prevalent  desire 
for  a  restoration  of  the  King.     Argyle  felt  it  to  be  too  strong 


348  EXILE   AND   BROKEN   HOPES      [chap,  xii 

for  resistance,  and  his  only  hope  was  that,  if  the  King  repaired 
to  Scotland,  it  would  be  under  conditions  so  dishonouring  and 
so  crippling  to  his  authority,  that  Argyle  would  be  in  reality 
the  master.  His  chief  difficulty  was  how  to  reconcile  even 
that  degree  of  support  to  the  Roj^alist  reaction  with  the 
friendship  which  he  desired  to  maintain  with  Cromwell. 
Would  Cromwell  be  content  to  permit  a  nominal  monarchy 
in  Scotland,  secure  that  a  puppet  King  would  be  kept  in 
such  subjection  as  would  prevent  any  interference  with 
his  own  rule  in  England  ? 

It  was  plain  that  Jersey  could  not  long  serve  as  a  secure 
resting-place  for  the  King.  When  their  hands  were  free,  it 
would  be  no  hard  task  for  the  forces  of  the  Commonwealth  to 
reduce  it.  With  danger  threatening,  those  who  had  urged 
the  expediency  of  coming  to  terms  with  the  Scots  became 
more  persistent ;  and  the  Queen  was  fully  persuaded  that 
this  offered  the  only  chance  of  success,  or  even  of  safety. 
France  might  at  any  time  pass  from  the  phase  of  studied 
neglect  to  that  of  active  hostility,  as  her  understanding 
with  Cromwell  became  closer.  Charles  met  the  Queen,  at 
her  own  earnest  request,  at  Beauvais,  in  Picardy,  and  passed 
on  to  Breda,  where  he  was  to  meet  the  Scottish  Com- 
missioners, and  arrange  these  terms  which  she  pressed  him 
urgently  to  accept.  At  Breda,  he  found  the  Commissioners 
determined  to  insist  upon  all  the  old  severity  of  conditions. 
He  was  to  come  with  no  chaplain  of  his  own,  and  both  he 
and  all  permitted  to  attend  him  were  to  be  compelled  to 
sign  the  Covenant  before  entering  the  Kingdom.  "  Very 
fair  warning  indeed,"  says  Hyde;  "nor  could  any  man 
justly  except  against  anything  that  was  afterwards  done  to 
him." 

But  in  spite  of  all  the  drawbacks,  the  inducements  to 
accept  the  offers  of  the  Scots  were  strong.  Faint  though 
the  hope  was,  scarcely  any  other  course  seemed  open.     The 


1650]  DEFEAT   OF   MONTROSE  349 

Queen  and  her  adherents  urged  it  keenly.  The  wiser  advice 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  went  in  the  same  direction,  and  the 
oi^position  of  the  Anghcan  Episcopacy  could  not  weigh  for 
much  with  Charles  himself.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  and 
Lord  Wilmot  were  ready  to  venture  themselves  with  the  King 
in  Scotland,  and  for  them  the  signing  of  a  covenant,  more 
or  less,  was  but  a  jest.  Cottington  and  Hyde  were  as 
suspicious  as  ever  of  the  good  faith  of  the  Scots,  and  foresaw 
the  shock  which  would  be  given  to  the  Royalists  in  England  by 
the  terms  which  the  Presbyterian  leaders  in  Scotland  would 
extort  from  the  King.  They  guessed  that  the  disasters  which 
had  attended  Hamilton's  ill-fated  attempt  would  be  repeated 
on  a  larger  scale.  They  would  fain  have  rejoined  Charles, 
and  dissuaded  him  from  the  voyage.  But  the  opposite  faction 
had  no  mind  to  have  their  plans  frustrated,  and  they  were 
ordered  to  remain  at  their  posts  in  Spain,  and  to  prosecute  a 
hopeless  embassy. 

Before  Charles  went  to  Scotland,  ho  had  allowed  Montrose 
to  make  one  more  gallant  effort  to  retrieve  his  cause.  No 
aid  could  bo  found  for  the  Marquis,  either  in  Holland  or  from 
France.  But  Montrose  was  one  whose  courage  never 
failed.  Ho  resorted  to  Denmark  and  Sweden,  and 
finally  to  Germany,  to  see  what  troops  he  could  gather, 
were  it  only  by  the  glamour  of  his  own  name.  Ho  accom- 
plished little,  and  for  the  most  part  found  himself  forestalled 
by  the  emissaries  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  could  sail 
with  no  more  than  five  hundred  men,  and  he  had  to  trust 
mainly  to  his  own  magic  influence  with  the  Highland  clans. 
To  them  he  again  appealed,  and  they  flocked  to  his  standard. 
But  Argyle  had  his  military  forces  better  organized,  and  a 
very  brief  campaign  ended  in  the  defeat  and  capture  of  the 
Marquis.  He  and  some  thirty  other  leading  men  of  the  true 
Royalist  party  in  Scotland  were  condemned  to  death,  and  were 
executed  with  every  device  of  insult  and  cruelty  that  could 


350  EXILE   AND   BROKEN    HOPES      [chap,  xii 

gratify  the  malignity  of  Argyle  and  his  faction.^  Once  more 
a  gallant  contingent  of  loyal  adherents  had  been  encouraged 
to  waste  their  lives  in  a  hopeless  attempt.  Charles  was 
told  that  Montrose's  rebelhon  had  been  crushed  in  the 
interests  of  the  Crown.  He  was  compelled  to  accept  an 
explanation  which  was  at  once  an  insult  and  a  threat. 
When  he  landed  at  Aberdeen,  it  was  to  see  the  limbs  of 
Montrose  bleaching  on  its  gates.  He  was  forced  to  accept 
the  Covenant,  to  acknowledge  the  guilt  of  his  father,  to 
renounce  his  mother's  sins,  and.  in  a  word,  he  found  himself 
a  degraded  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Argyle,  with  nothing 
but  the  empty  symbols  of  royalty  attached  to  his  person. 

There  was  something  grimly  humorous  in  the  position 
in  which  Hyde  now  found  himself.  Detesting  any  resort 
to  Scottish  assistance,  he  was  nevertheless  forced  to  make 
the  best  of  it,  and  to  represent  the  important  advance  in 
the  Royahst  cause  that  was  evinced  in  the  King's  acceptance 
as  undoubted  sovereign  by  the  northern  kingdom  ;  and 
strange  to  say,  he  found  the  Spanish  Court  powerfully  in- 
fluenced by  the  apparent  accession  of  authority  thus  brought 
to  the  cause  of  Charles.  He  was  fain  to  make  the  most  of 
what  he  knew  to  be  but  a  hollow  farce. 

Charles  remained  for  three  months,  cut  off  from  his 
friends,  under  a  galling  tutelage,  and  harassed  by  those 
uncouth  surroundings  that  made  him  look  back  with  regret 
even  on  the  humiliations  that  he  had  suffered  as  a  wandering 
exile,  begging  a  precarious  support  from  grudging  and 
doubting  alms-givers.  It  is  scarcely  wonderful  that  under 
such  an  experience  the  iron  of  cynicism  entered  into  his 
soul,  that  a  character  naturally  brave,  courteous,  and  not 
unkindly,  was  permanently  warped,  and  that  he  learned 
to  look  upon  human  action  as  influenced  chiefly  by  selfishness, 
furious    fanaticism,    and    impenetrable    deceit.      And    yet 

'  May,  1650. 


1650]  CHARLES   IN  SCOTLAND  351 

during  these  weary  months  the  notion  was  dihgently 
fostered  that  the  Royal  cause  had  received  powerful  aid. 
At  the  same  moment  his  adherents  in  England  were  in 
deeper  despair  than  they  had  ever  been,  and  suffered  at 
every  turn  some  new  proof  of  the  vindictive  spirit  of  their 
foes.  Nor  did  the  embassy  in  Spain  fare  better.  A  deed  of 
violence,  in  which  some  of  their  own  followers  were  impli- 
cated, and  which  bore  a  singular  resemblance  to  the  assassi- 
nation of  Dorislaus  at  the  Hague,  complicated  their  mission 
at  Madrid.  There  one  Ascham,  the  envoy  of  the  Common- 
wealth, was  killed  by  some  Royalist  exiles.  The  murder 
aroused  no  angry  feeling  amongst  the  Spanish  populace, 
whose  sympathies  were  more  hearty  than  those  of  their 
rulers  ;  but  a  situation  of  great  difficulty  was  thus  created, 
which  all  but  extinguished  any  hopes  that  Hyde  and  Cotting- 
ton  might  still  cherish.  Only  the  strict  adherence  to  the 
rights  of  ambassadors  which  prevailed  in  Spain  saved  them 
from  serious  personal  danger,  but  fortunately  they  found 
themselves  well  supported  by  the  strong  fcehng  of  the  am- 
bassadors from  other  States,  who  felt  bound  to  insist  upon 
those  rights.  Even  Don  Lewis  himself  went  so  far  as  to 
express  his  "  envy  of  those  gentlemen  for  having  done  so 
noble  an  action."  Doubtless  he  held  other  language  to 
the  offended  Commonwealth. 

Meanwhile  Cromwell  took  prompt  steps  to  check  even  the 
semblance  of  adherence  to  the  Crown  in  Scotland.  Assuming 
personally  the  command  in  Scotland,  he  sent  the  bulk  of 
his  forces  there  by  sea.  Illness  prostrated  him  for  six  weeks  ; 
but  as  soon  as  he  had  recovered,  he  marched  against  the 
Scottish  army,  and  by  out-manceuvring,  and  inducing  them 
to  quit  an  advantageous  position,  he  inflicted  on  them  a 
decisive  defeat  at  Dunbar.^  For  the  moment  that  defeat, 
by  crushing  the  pretensions  of  Argyle,  seemed  rather  to 

'  .September,  1650. 


352  EXILE  AND  BEOKEN  HOPES      [chap,  xii 

improve  the  position  of  the  King.  But  it  had  no  such 
aspect  in  Spain.  There  the  news  of  the  victory  of  Cromwell 
seemed  to  dissipate  the  last  hopes  of  the  Royalist  party. 
Hyde  and  Cottington  found  the  civilities  of  the  Court 
abated,  and  very  direct  hints  were  given  them  that  their 
stay  should  not  be  prolonged.  They  attempted  to  correct 
the  impression,  but  found  that  no  credit  was  given  to  their 
account,  and  the  hints  about  their  departure  became  more 
urgent.  In  spite  of  the  untoward  season  for  travelling, 
they  were  pressed  to  hasten  their  going,  and  Hyde  suspected 
that  one  reason  for  this  haste  was  to  conceal  from  them  the 
arrival  of  a  shipload  of  pictures  from  King  Charles's  palaces 
which  had  been  sold  by  the  orders  of  Parliament,  and  which 
his  former  ally  of  Spain  had  not  been  ashamed  to  acquire, 
probably  at  moderate  price.  Cottington's  work  was  over, 
and  his  only  wish  was  to  close  his  days  in  peace.  Spain 
offered  him  the  best  asylum,  and  for  his  residence  in  Spain, 
reconciliation  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  had 
always  appealed  to  his  not  very  earnest  religious  views,  was 
as  convenient  as  it  was  pleasing  to  himself.  That  re- 
conciliation was  now  effected,  and  the  old  statesman,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  Spanish  authorities,  bade  farewell 
to  his  friend,  and,  quitting  his  ambassadorial  functions, 
retired  to  ValladoUd.  There  he  died  a  year  later  in  his 
seventy-seventh  year.  Hyde  fully  appreciated  his  ripe 
wisdom,  his  rare  command  of  temper,  and  the  calm  courage 
with  which  he  had  pursued  his  way.  Amongst  his  gifts 
not  the  least  was  an  abundant  faculty  of  quiet  humour. 

"  His  greatest  fault  was  that  he  could  dissemble,  and 
make  men  believe  that  he  loved  them  very  well,  when  he 
cared  not  for  them.  .  .  .  He  was  heartily  weary  of  the  world, 
and  no  man  was  more  willing  to  die,  which  is  an  argument 
that  he  had  peace  of  conscience.  He  left  behind  him  a 
greater  esteem  of  his  parts  than  love  to  his  person." 


1650]      DISSENSIONS  IN  THE  EXILED  COURT       353 

The  portrait  is  coloured  by  no  enthusiastic  regard,  but 
it  has  all  the  living  reality  which  Hyde  knew  so  well  how 
to  impart. 

Hyde  had  failed  in  his  mission,  but  he  had  earned  per- 
sonal friendship  and  respect.  The  gift  bestowed  on  him, 
according  to  the  habit  of  the  time,  at  his  departure,  was  so 
far  below  the  usual  scale  that  he  was  tempted  to  decline 
it ;  ^  but  Cottington's  wise  advice  and  his  own  necessity 
induced  him  to  accept  a  supply  which  an  empty  purse  made 
welcome.  He  quitted  Spain  with  a  handsome  introduction 
to  the  authorities  in  Flanders,  and  was  thereby  enabled 
to  rejoin  his  family  and  live  in  comparative  comfort  at 
Antwerp  for  a  time.  As  he  passed  through  France,  he 
found  that  there  also,  as  in  Spain,  Cromwell's  success  at 
Dunbar  was  beheved  to  have  extinguished  the  last  hopes 
of  his  master.  It  was  no  small  injury  to  that  cause  that 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  whose  intervention  on  Charles's  behalf 
had  often  been  efficacious,  died  in  his  prime,  and  left  the 
prospects  of  his  yet  unborn  son  at  the  mercy  of  the  powerful 
faction  that  disputed  his  rights,  and  for  many  years  virtually 
set  them  aside.  Spain  was  as  much  elated  as  France  was 
depressed  by  an  event  which  so  powerfully  affected  their 
rival  interests.  As  Hyde  passed  through  France,  he  found 
also  that  there  were  new  elements  of  dispeace  in  the  house- 
hold of  the  Queen.  There  were  serious  differences  between 
her  and  the  Duke  of  York  ;  and  an  important  section  of 
the  Royalist  party  were  bitterly  estranged  by  the  peremptory 
prohibition  of  any  Protestant  service  in  the  house  of  the 
Queen.  Hyde  did  what  he  could  to  compose  these  dis- 
putes, and  to  impress  the  Queen  with  the  impohcy  of  her 
open  preference  of  the  Roman  Cathohcs  to  those  who  formed 
the  real  strength  of  the  King's  party  in  England. 

'  It  was  an  odd,  and  one  would  have  thought  not  a  very  dignified,  habit 
which  made  an  ambassador's  emoluments  depend  largely  on  such  gifts. 
But  Hj'de  spealis  of  it  as  a  recognized  custom. 

VOL.    I.  2    A 


CHAPTER    XIII 

Cromwell's  protectorate 

The  time  was  now  approaching  when  Charles  was  to  make 
a  more  resohite  bid  for  the  recovery  of  his  power.     There 
was  in  Scotland  a  large  body  of  Royalist  adherents,  upon 
whom  the  brmit  of  the  defeat  at  Dunbar  had  not  fallen, 
and  who  had  no  mind  to  follow  the  lead  of  Argyle.     The 
King  gave  the  first  sign  of  his  recovered  independence  by 
making  his  escape  from  Stirling,  where  he  was  under  Argyle's 
close  observation,  and  betaking  himself,  for  a  short  time, 
to    the  fastnesses   of    the    neighbouring    Highlands.     This 
escapade — "  The  Start,"  as  it  was  called — had  little  pru- 
dence or  design,  but  it  served  to  show  his  resentment  at  his 
subjection,  and  that  resentment  found  an  echo  in  the  breasts 
of  his  more  faithful  adherents.    Argyle  was  obhged  to  lessen 
his  pretensions.     Parliament  was  summoned  in  the  King's 
name,  and  preparations  were  made  for  his  coronation  at 
Scone.     Charles  had  spent  the  winter  between  Perth  and 
Stirling,  where  he  strengthened  his  hold  upon  the  people  ; 
and  now  Cromwell  was  making  preparations  at  Edinburgh  for 
the  coming  campaign.     By  midsummer,  in  1651,  the  two 
armies — for   Charles   had   now  levied   a   very   considerable 
force — faced  one  another  on  the  Highland  borders.    For  a 
time   Charles  might    have  withdrawn  to   the  inaccessible 
parts   of   the   Highlands ;   but   this   would   have   been   an 
admission  of  weakness,  and  a  guerilla  warfare  there  could 


1651]  BATTLE   OF  WORCESTEB  355 

have  had  little  practical  result.     By  successful  manoeuvring 
he  was  able  to  gain  a  march  upon  Cromwell,  in  advancing 
upon  England,  where  he  hoped  to  gather  adherents  as  he 
progressed.    His  approach  caused  some  trepidation  to  the 
EngHsh  Parhament,  but  they  were  reassured  by  Cromwell ; 
"  he  would  overtake  the  enemy  before  they  should  give 
them  any  trouble."    Monk  was  left  in  charge  of  Scotland, 
and  Cromwell,  with  full  confidence  in  his  own  power,  pre- 
pared to  follow  the  King.     Once  on  the  move,  his  advance 
was  rapid.    The  King  did  his  best  to  sustain  the  spirits  of 
his  army,   but  the  outlook   was  far  from   bright.     David 
Lesley,  his  chief  general,  was  depressed,  and  the  King  ralhcd 
him  in  vain.     "  How  could  he  bo  sad,"  he  asked,  "  at  the 
head   of   so   brave   an   army  ? "     "He   was   melancholy," 
answered  Lesley,  "for  he  well  know  that  army,  how  well 
so  ever  it  looked,  would  not  fight."     In  this  spirit  they 
reached  Worcester — as  favourably  situated  as  any  spot  in 
England  for  the  purpose  of  the  King,  and  his  army  of  twenty 
thousand  men  might  surely  give  a  good  account  of  themselves. 
But  depression  still  prevailed,  and  was  deepened  by  messages 
of  disaster  from  outlying  forces  of  his  own  adherents.     The 
Earl  of  Derby  was  defeated,  and  other  valuable  leaders  were 
lost.    Dissensions  prevailed  amongst  the  King's  own  officers, 
and  Lesley  made  no  secret  of  his  increasing   fears.    They 
had  only  a  few  days  to  wait  for  Cromwell's  advance,  and 
the  fatal  tight  of  Worcester  ^  soon  put  an  end  to  all  hope 
of  martial  resistance  to  the  power  of  the  Commonwealth. 
The  King's  army  was  absolutely  dispersed.    The  Duke  of 
Hamilton  fell,  and  died  a  prisoner  a  few  days  later.     The 
chivalrous  and  high-spirited  Earl  of  Derby  had  rejoined  the 
King  and,  after  the  battle,  accompanied  him  to  Boscobel. 
He  was  intercepted  on  his  return  to  the  north,  made  prisoner, 
and  after  a  trial  which  was  a  mockery  of  justice,  was  executed 

'  September,  1G51. 


356  CEOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

on  October  5th. ^  The  King  himself  escaped,  only  to  wander, 
a  hunted  fugitive,  for  months  before  he  managed  to  make 
his  way  across  the  Channel.  He  reached  Rouen  in  November, 
after  a  dire  experience  of  hardships,  amidst  which  his  life 
was  almost  miraculously  saved  by  a  devotion — in  which  his 
Catholic  subjects  could  claim  no  small  share — paralleled  only 
by  that  shown  to  his  grand-nephew,  a  century  later,  by  the 
loyal  clansmen  of  the  Highland  glens. 

Through  all  these  tragic  events,  following  in  quick  succes- 
sion, Hyde  had  been  but  a  distant  and  anxious  onlooker. 
During  the  latest  weeks  he  had,  with  others,  despaired  of  the 
safety  of  the  King.  At  last  the  message  came  that  the  King 
had  arrived  in  Paris,  and  commanded  his  attendance  there. 
A  counter  message  also  reached  him  from  Mr.  Long,  the 
King's  secretary,  prompted  by  the  Queen,  bidding  him  wait 
for  further  orders.  But  Hyde  was  in  no  mood  to  be  parted 
from  his  master  by  any  pettiness  of  Court  intrigue.  He 
arrived  in  Paris  at  Christmas,  and  learned  the  machinations 
of  the  Queen,  who  was  shrewd  enough  to  make  the  best  of 
the  situation,  and  received  him  with  outward  graciousness. 
When  Hyde  had  determined  on  his  line  of  duty,  it  required 
strong  agency  to  divert  his  purpose.  At  Paris  he  found 
the  Marquis  of  Ormonde,  who,  after  Cromwell's  complete 
subjugation  of  Ireland,  had  managed  to  escape  to  Nor- 
mandy. These  two,  who  were  now  trusty  friends,  met 
once  more,  and  henceforward  they  pursued  one  whole- 
hearted  policy   in   their   master's   service,   broken   by   no 

'  James  Stanley,  seventh  Earl  of  Derby,  born  in  1606,  was  one  of  the 
many  adherents  of  the  King  whose  efEorts  on  his  behalf  were  stimulated  by 
no  selfish  motive.  He  had  never  been  a  courtier,  and  preferred  the  life  of 
a  country  gentleman  (with  the  cultivation  of  literary  tastes)  to  that  which 
prevailed  at  Court.  When  war  broke  out,  he  did  good  service  in  many 
fights,  and  after  all  was  lost  in  England,  he  held  his  "  kingdom  "  of  the 
Isle  of  Man  in  defiance  of  the  Parliament.  His  wife  was  the  famous 
Charlotte  de  TremouiUe,  daughter  of  the  Due  de  Thouars.  At  Worcester 
he  was  severely  wounded  ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  giving  an 
escort  to  the  King  in  the  first  part  of  his  wanderings. 


1651]  HYDE   EEJOINS   THE   KING  857 

suspicion  of  bad  faith  or  even  of  divergent  opinion.  "  The 
King,"  Hyde  tells  us,  "  was  abundantly  satisfied  in  the 
friendship  they  had  for  each  other,  and  trusted  them  both 
entirely  ;  nor  was  it  in  the  power  of  any,  though  it  was 
often  endeavoured  by  persons  of  no  ordinary  account,  to 
break  or  interrupt  that  natural  confidence  between  them, 
during  the  whole  time  the  King  remained  beyond  the  seas." 
Hyde  acknowledged  that,  without  the  help  of  Ormonde,  the 
task  that  lay  before  him  would  have  been  beyond  his 
powers.^ 

In  the  Court,  besides  the  pressure  of  poverty,  there  was 
trouble  enough.  The  Duke  of  York  was  anxious  to  enter 
upon  the  active  business  of  soldiering,  and  was  tired  of 
being  kept  inactive  and  in  tutelage.  Selfish  and  intriguing 
confidants  sought  to  strengthen  their  own  influence  by 
urging  him  to  take  a  position  of  independence.  The  Queen 
and  King  were  both  perplexed,  and  hesitated  at  the  risk. 
Sir  John  Berkeley,  for  whom  Hyde  had  no  respect,  and  whose 
inveterate  love  of  sordid  intrigue  was  yet  to  bring  him  more 
trouble,  was  the  chief  of  these  advisers,  and  endeavoured 
to  make  it  appear  to  the  Duke  that  Hyde  was  the  great 
opponent  of  the  scheme.  He  was  also  soliciting  a  place 
on  the  Council  for  himself,  with  the  post  of  Master  of  the 
Wards,  falsely  alleging  that  he  had  the  promise  of  the  post 
from  the  late  King.  For  the  Council  he  was  not  deemed 
fit ;  and  to  revive  a  now  obsolete  post  in  his  favour  was, 
as  Hyde  perceived,  an  imminent  danger  to  the  Royal  cause. 
Charles  had  agreed  to  abandon  the  prerogative  of  wardship, 
which  was  the  object  of  hatred  to  the  aristocracy  on  whom 
his  hopes  depended.  The  ambitious  intrigues  of  Berkeley 
were  frustrated.  In  spite  of  his  importunity,  Charles 
"  prevailed  with  himself,  which  he  used  not  to  do  in  such 

'  In  1646,  as  we  have  seen,  Hyde  had  not  even  met  Ormonde.  The 
years  of  exile  had  quickly  brought  them  into  close  relations. 


358  CEOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

cases,  to  give  him  a  positive  denial,  and  reprehension,  at 
once."  ^  Hyde  had  done  a  good  service  in  strengthening 
the  King's  resolution ;  but  it  was  at  the  cost  of  gaining  an 
inveterate  and  unscrupulous  foe. 

Not  the  least  impediment  in  all  the  dreary  time  that  was 
to  follow  proceeded  from  the  degrading  and  grinding  poverty 
of  the  Court.  Very  shame  compelled  the  French  Court  to 
make  some  provision  for  the  necessities  of  their  Royal  guest, 
the  near  kinsman  of  the  French  King,  and  at  length  an 
allowance  of  six  thousand  pistoles  was  doled  out  to  him. 
But  it  was  already  heavily  forestalled  to  the  Queen,  and 
she  abated  none  of  her  claims.  The  King  himself  often  knew 
not  how  to  raise  twenty  pistoles.  His  most  trusted  advisers 
were  unpaid,  and  forced  to  irksome  straits.  Ormonde  and 
Hyde  lodged  obscurely,  and  for  board  and  lodging  paid  a 
pistole  a  week  each.  They  were  compelled  to  trudge  about 
the  streets  afoot,  contrary  to  the  custom  usual  amongst 
the  gentlemen  of  France.  Meanwhile  Jermyn,  selfish  as 
usual,  abated  nothing  of  his  usual  luxury,  kept  an  expensive 
table,  and  drove  his  carriage  with  the  best.  The  Queen 
cared  more  for  her  favourite's  ease  than  for  the  dignity  of 
her  son. 

Hyde  suffered  his  own  privations  bravely,  and  confined 
himself  to  waiting  quietly  the  issue  of  affairs.  During  the  next 
few  years  his  part  in  politics  was  an  obscure  one.  The 
events  beyond  the  seas  in  England  passed  before  him  like 
figures  on  a  stage,  which  he  could  not  directly  influence. 
He  was  anxious  only  that  no  rash  attempt  should  be  made, 
and  that  the  policy  of  non-intervention,  which  he  was 
convinced  was  the  wisest,  should  not  be  broken.  He  had 
constant  correspondents  in  England,  but  was  obliged  to 
guide  his  course  without  that  immediate  contact  with  the 
changing   conditions   of    his   country   which   was   urgently 

»  Rebellion,  xiii.  126. 


1652]    OVERTUEES   FROM   THE   HIGHLANDS       359 

necessary,  and  the  loss  of  which  told  heavily,  both  now  and 
later,  to  the  detriment  of  his  influence.  So  far  as  Hyde's 
biography  is  concerned,  these  years  were,  to  all  appearance, 
a  time  of  inaction ;  and  we  can  pass  them  only  briefly  in 
review,  eventful  and  fateful  as  they  were  in  the  history  of 
England. 

The  usual  difficulties  of  mutual  jealousies  were  still  in 
full  force  about  the  Court.  The  Queen  and  Jermyn  were 
as  anxious  as  ever  to  cultivate  alliances  that  would  have 
been  distasteful  to  the  Royalists  of  England.  The  Queen, 
as  fervid  Catholic,  and  Jermyn,  as  having  no  care  for  religion 
at  all,  were  both  eager  that  Charles  should  conciliate  the 
Nonconformists  by  attending  the  Presbyterian  rites  in  the 
church  at  Charenton.  To  this  Hyde  was  vehemently 
opposed,  and  he  succeeded  in  bringing  Charles  to  his  views. 
It  was  strange  that  at  this  very  time  overtures  came  from 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  urging  once  more  the  prevalence 
in  their  country  of  Royalist  views,  and  suggesting  new 
attempts  in  that  direction.  But  they  did  so  under  conditions  ; 
and  the  foremost  of  these  was  that  any  negotiations  should 
be  conducted  through  Hyde,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  should  not  be  communicated  to  the  Queen  or  Jermyn. 
The  concessions  which  these  last  were  anxious  to  see 
extended  to  the  Presbyterians,  evidently  proved  little  to 
the  liking  of  the  Scottish  Royalists,  whom  they  fancied  that 
they  would  concihate.  The  King  urged  upon  Hyde  the 
charge  of  fostering  this  forlorn  hope  from  Scotland,  to 
which  he  was  strongly  averse.  He  foresaw,  what  proved 
to  be  the  case,  that  the  Queen  would  soon  learn  the  facts, 
and  that  her  jealousy  would  be  redoubled  by  her  own 
exclusion  from  these  counsels.  His  own  view  was  that  the 
Royal  cause  would  best  be  helped  by  resting  quietly,  and 
waiting  for  events  to  ripen  ;  but  at  the  urgent  request  of  the 
King  he  was  compelled  to  undertake  the  irksome  task.     No 


360  CEOMWELL'S   PEOTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

good  results  came  of  it.  It  only  showed  how  early  the  Stuart 
cause  had  won  the  loyal,  although  now  ineffectual,  support 
of  the  Highlands. 

The  dissensions  at  the  Court  of  France,  and  the  fierce 
contentions  between  the  Cardinal  and  Prince  Conde,  made 
the  position  of  Charles  and  his  mother  still  more  precarious. 
So  dangerous  did  it  seem  that,  with  the  assent  of  both  the 
contending  factions  in  France,  the  English  Court  moved 
from  Paris  to  St.  Germains.  But  no  hazards  and  no  diffi- 
culties rendered  the  little  cliques  in  that  Court  less  hostile 
to  one  another,  or  lessened  the  fierce  pursuit  of  places  and 
honours  which  were,  in  reality,  but  empty  names.  No  King 
in  the  plenitude  of  authority  was  more  worried  than  was 
Charles  by  the  shameless  competitors  for  the  phantom 
honours  of  titular  place  and  precedence  which  were  all  he 
had  to  dispense.  At  some  future  day  these  might  mean 
something.  Meanwhile  the  weakness  of  the  Crown  was  an 
encouragement  to  unabashed  solicitation,  and  the  fact  that 
what  the  King  could  give  was  so  little  worth,  served  as  an 
excuse  for  importunity  in  its  pursuit. 

A  new  and  a  possibly  promising  turn  seemed  to  be  given 
to  affairs  in  the  increasing  jealousy  between  the  Common- 
wealth and  the  States  of  Holland.  The  passing  of  the 
Navigation  Act,  which  prohibited  the  entry  into  the  ports 
of  England  of  any  merchandise  on  other  than  English 
merchant  ships,  except  such  as  came  from  the  country  to 
which  the  ships  belonged,  struck  a  dire  blow  at  the  carrying 
trade  of  Holland.  That  trade  consisted  of  merchandise  from 
all  parts  of  the  globe,  only  a  very  small  portion  of  which 
came  from  Holland  itself.  A  protest  from  the  Dutch  was 
received  with  haughty  disdain  ;  and  by  the  spring  of  1 652, 
the  two  nations  had  drifted  into  war,  and  Van  Tromp  and 
Blake  were  trying  conclusions  in  the  Channel,  and  sinking  one 
another's  ships,  while  envoys  vainly  attempted  to  patch  up 


1652]     ENGLAND  AT  WAR  WITH  HOLLAND        361 

some  arrangement.  Merchant  convoys  were  captured,  com- 
merce was  broken,  and  Blake  pursued  the  Dutchmen's  fishing 
vessels  even  to  the  Orkneys,  and  convoyed  them  into 
Enghsh  ports. 

This  quarrel  of  the  Commonwealth  with  Holland  seemed 
to  offer  a  possible  chance  for  the  exiled  Royalists.    Charles 
and  his  advisers  still  trusted  to  some  friendliness  for  their 
cause  amongst  the  fleet,  where  the  crews  were  a  people  by 
themselves,  and  were  by  no  means  enamoured  of  their  new 
masters.     The   Dutch   ambassador   at   Paris,   Borzel,   was 
on  good   terms  with   Hyde,   and  constantly  interchanged 
views  with  him.     In  consultation  with  Ormonde  and  Hyde, 
the  King  conceived  the  idea  of  securing  the  alliance  of  the 
Dutch,  by  offering  to  withdraw  from  the  Enghsh  fleet  all 
whose    Royahst   sympathies   might  induce  them  to  desert 
upon  the  summons  of  the  King.     Charles  was  ready  to  sail 
on  the  Dutch  fleet  without  command  of  any  ships  except 
those  which  might  repair  to  him  from  Blake's  contingent. 
This  offer  was  duly  communicated  to  the  States.    Some  were 
ready  to  accept  it,  and  looked  upon  it  with  sanguine  hopes, 
as  a  means  of  crushing  the  insolence  of  the  Enghsh  Common- 
wealth.    But  De  Witt  had  no  mind  to  commit  his  country 
to  such  doubtful  alhance.     He  made  more  cautious  counsels 
prevail,  and  a  civil  but  non-committal  answer  was  sent  to 
a  proposal  from  which  neither  Charles  nor  the  Dutch  were 
likely  to  be  gainers.     The  superior  power  of  the  English 
fleet  was  too  evident  to  make  resistance  possible ;  and  after 
some   further   disasters,    the   Dutch   were  ready   to   make 
overtures  for  peace  which  Cromwell's  own  necessities  made 
him  not  unwilhng  to  receive.     He  had  nothing  to  fear  from 
foreign  foes,  who  vied  with  one  another  in  seeking  for  his 
friendship.     By  the  easy  seizure  of  Guernsey  and  Jersey 
he  was  complete  master  of    the  whole  English  kingdom. 
Ireland  and  Scotland  were  held  firmly  in  his  grasp.     The 


362  CROMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

plantations  in  the  West  Indies  readily  accepted  his  authority. 
His  bitterest  and  most  irreconcilable  foes  were  those  at  home, 
and  to  them  he  had  now  to  turn  his  attention. 

They  were  no  longer  confined  to  any  one  section  of  the 
nation.  However  concealed  the  aims  and  workings  of  the 
Royalists  were,  Cromwell  knew  well  enough  that  under  their 
influence  a  large  proportion  of  the  nation  viewed  him  with 
bitter  and  unrelenting  hatred,  which  waited  only  for  a 
fitting  opportunity  to  show  itself.  Other  enemies  were 
more  avowed.  The  Presbyterian  influence  in  Parliament 
was  outspoken  in  its  opposition,  and  endeavoured  to  thwart 
him  at  every  turn.  Worse  still,  the  Independents,  including 
Vane  himself,  were  now  jealous  of  his  power,  and  were 
willing  to  join  even  their  old  foes  the  Presbyterians,  in  de- 
nouncing his  tyranny,  and  showing  defiance  to  his  authority. 
In  the  army  alone  he  could  always  reckon  upon  well- 
organized  support,  which  could  quickly  silence  any  overt 
opposition.  A  shower  of  petitions  might  easily  be  poured, 
at  any  convenient  moment,  upon  Parliament,  in  which  the 
soldiers  could  state  in  language  of  very  thinly-veiled 
threat,  the  neglect  with  which  the  factions  at  West- 
minster had  treated  their  labours  and  sufferings  in  the 
cause.  At  length  his  patience  was  exhausted,  or  the  time  for 
action  seemed  ripe.  On  April  2nd,  1653,  Cromwell  appeared 
in  the  House,  with  some  officers  who  were  also  members,  and 
announced  plainly  that  he  had  come  to  put  an  end  to  their 
authority.  They  would  do  well  to  submit  quietly,  and,  to 
show  how  any  resistance  would  be  met,  a  file  of  musketeers 
presently  entered  the  House,  and  waited  until  the  members 
left.  The  mace  was  removed,  the  doors  locked,  and  by  a 
single  bold  act  the  Parliament  that  had  crushed  the  Hberties 
of  England  during  thirteen  years  was  dispersed.  Cromwell 
determined  that  if  there  was  to  be  any  semblance  of  Parlia- 
ment, it  must  be  of  a  kind  that  could  possess  httle  authority 


1653]         THE   BAREBONE'S   PARLIAMENT  363 

or  respect.  Election  would  give  it  too  much  weight,  and 
accordingly  he  nominated  140  persons,  few  of  whom  had 
any  position  of  authority  or  any  weight  of  character.  This 
strange  gathering,  which  for  a  brief  moment  masqueraded 
as  the  Parliament  of  England,  was  known,  from  the  name 
of  Praise-God  Barebone  (a  Fleet  Street  leather-dealer, 
who  was  a  notable  member  of  the  little  group  of  fanatic 
preachers),  as  the  "Barebone's  Parhament,"  met  on  July  4th, 
1653.  They  were  to  dehberate  on  the  affairs  of  the  nation — 
always  subject  to  the  control  of  Cromwell — until  November 
3rd,  1654  ;  but  three  months  before  that  date,  they  were  to 
nominate  an  equal  number  of  men  who  were  to  take  their 
places,  and  were  to  wield  the  same  powers  for  another  year. 
Cromwell  had  purposely  made  them  weak  and  helpless  in 
his  hands.  But  tyranny  like  his  often  overshoots  the  mark, 
and  it  did  so  notably  here.  His  Barebone's  Parliament 
was  intended  to  be  weak,  but  he  can  hardly  have  meant  it  to  be 
imbecile.  For  five  months  they  were  allowed  to  vapour  over 
a  wide  range  of  subjects  with  about  as  much  intelligence 
as  a  crowd  of  Covent  Garden  porters.  Then  the  signal  was 
given,  On  December  12th,  1653,  one  of  the  motley  company 
rose  to  propose  that  as  they  were  clearly  unequal  to  the  task 
laid  upon  them,  they  ought  to  surrender  their  authority  into 
the  hands  from  which  they  had  received  it.  Had  they 
lasted  longer,  they  might  have  transmitted  some  of  the 
ridicule  into  which  they  had  fallen  to  him  who  had  created 
them.  As  it  was,  they  served  him  only  as  a  new  stepping- 
stone  to  power.  Their  surrender  of  an  authority  which  was 
never  meant  to  be  real,  left  Cromwell  and  his  Council  the 
only  alternative  to  anarchy.  The  Instrument  of  Govern- 
ment was  now  issued  by  the  sole  authority  of  the  Council, 
and  by  it  Cromwell  was  constituted  as  Lord  Protector.  He 
was  to  have  a  Council  of  twenty-one  persons,  and  once 
every  three  years  he  was  to  summon  a  Parliament,  the  date 


364  CEOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

of  its  jSrst  assembling  being  fixed  for  September,  1654.  In 
the  intervals  of  Parliament,  the  Lord  Protector  and  his 
Council  were  to  have  legislative  as  well  as  executive  power. 
A  more  than  royal  prerogative  was  thus  conferred  upon 
him ;  and  with  something  of  royal  state  the  ceremony  of 
installation  was  carried  out.  The  sword  of  state  was  borne 
before  him,  heralds  proclaimed  his  titles  and  authority.  In 
the  city  he  was  received  with  all  the  solemn  formality  of 
a  sovereign,  and  as  the  fountain  of  honour,  he  conferred  a 
knighthood  upon  the  Lord  Mayor.  As  if  to  signalize  his 
triumphant  accession,  the  struggle  with  the  naval  power  of 
the  Dutch  came  to  a  conclusion,  after  more  than  one  des- 
perate engagement,  with  the  death  of  Van  Tromp,  the  greatest 
naval  commander  of  the  day.  The  death  of  their  commander 
as  well  as  their  heavy  losses  compelled  the  Dutch  to  accept 
any  terms  of  peace.  In  April,  1654,  Cromwell  was  able  to 
dictate  conditions  at  his  will.  Besides  important  surrenders 
of  territory  in  the  East  Indies,  the  Dutch  were  compelled 
to  bind  themselves  to  give  refuge  on  their  soil  to  no  Royalist 
adherent.  Triumphant  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  he  could 
now  turn  to  the  task  of  taking  vengeance  upon  those  who 
were  detected  in  any  scheme  for  giving  effect  to  the  con- 
cealed but  sleepless  hatred  of  the  Royahsts  who  still  re- 
mained on  English  soil.  New  and  summary  tribunals 
were  erected,  and  new  victims  were  speedily  claimed  by  the 
scaffold.  Cromwell  could  dictate  terms  to  Holland  as  well 
as  to  Portugal.  He  could  spread  terror  amongst  the  Royalists, 
and  could  silence  Independent  as  well  as  Presbyterian.  He 
could  not  check  the  slow  but  certain  growth  of  the  ingrained 
hatred  of  his  rule  which  was  spreading  amongst  every  class 
in  the  nation.  Even  the  Levellers  in  the  army,  who  had 
helped  him  to  reduce  the  Parliament,  were  now  grumbling 
in  no  uncertain  tones  against  his  overweening  tyranny. 
The  autumn  of  1654  had  been  fixed  by  the  Instrument 


1654]    THE   INSTRUMENT  OF  GOVERNMENT       365 

of  Government  as  the  date  for  the  first  Parliament.  It  was 
not  to  be  nominated  hke  the  Barebone's  ParHament,  but  a 
semblance  of  free  election  was  to  be  given ;  and  by  a  bold 
step  towards  Parhamentary  reform — to  which  even  Hyde 
finds  himself  obliged  to  give  a  tribute  of  praise — there  was 
to  be  a  redistribution  of  seats  which  equalized  representation; 
by  increasing  the  number  of  knights  elected  for  each  shire, 
and  reducing  the  number  of  burgesses  for  many  of  the  more 
obscure  and  petty  boroughs.  They  met  on  September  3rd, 
and  had  the  usual  type  of  address  from  the  Lord  Protector, 
"  full  of  texts,"  but  indicating  clearly  enough  the  line  of 
action  which  he  intended  that  they  should  pursue.  Their 
choice  of  Speaker — Lenthall,  who  had  occupied  the  chair 
in  the  Long  Parliament — had  something  ominous  about  it. 

The  turn  of  debate  soon  showed  the  underlying  discontent. 
They  began  to  discuss  the  authority  which  had  convened  them, 
and  the  whole  basis  of  the  Government  was  assailed.  It  was 
in  vain  that  Cromwell  summoned  them  to  the  Painted 
Chamber,  where  he  told  them,  in  express  terms,  what  were 
the  fundamental  principles  about  which  he  would  suffer 
no  dispute.  There  must  be  a  single  ruler ;  that  single  ruler 
would  give  a  certain  partnership  of  power  to  a  Parliament ; 
between  these  two  the  military  power  should  be  shared. 
In  religion  there  must  be  liberty  of  conscience.  These  were 
fundamentals,  and  the  Protector  lectured  his  indocile  Com- 
mons, as  if  they  were  a  crowd  of  unruly  children,  on  the 
error  of  their  ways.  To  mend  matters,  a  guard  was  set 
upon  the  doors,  and  no  one  was  suffered  to  enter  who  did 
not  swear  to  support  the  frame  of  the  Government  as  now 
arranged.  Cromwell's  methods  of  deahng  with  the  recal- 
citrant assembly  were  drastic  to  the  point  of  comedy.  But 
it  was  of  no  avail.  Like  a  set  of  raw  recruits,  they  were 
too  stubborn  to  obey,  but  too  stupid  to  mutiny.  Their 
ineffectual  discussions  dragged  on.    Five  months  was  the 


366  CKOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

period  for  which,  according  to  the  Instrument  of  Govern- 
ment, a  Parhament  was  to  last.  As  soon  as  the  bare  five 
lunar  months  had  passed,  on  January  22nd,  165|,  Cromwell 
"  let  them  know  he  could  do  the  business  without  them." 
He  dismissed  them  back  to  their  constituencies — to  be  new 
seed-plots  of  discontent  throughout  the  land. 

There  were  two  former  adherents  who  had  lately  become 
pronounced  opponents,  of  whom  Cromwell  was  now  obliged 
to  take  notice.  These  were  Major  John  Wildman  and  John 
Lilburne.  Both  were  men  who  perhaps  represented  in- 
fluences more  potent  amongst  the  masses  of  their  country- 
men, than  other  men  whose  names  are  written  more  largely 
on  the  page  of  history.  Wildman  had  found  a  congenial 
sphere  for  his  restless  and  turbulent  abihty  in  the  outbreak 
of  civil  hostilities.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  and 
already  recognized  for  "  his  pregnant  wit."  Others  were 
inspired  by  the  rehgious  or  political  fanaticism  of  the  day, 
and  acquired  their  strength  from  acting  as  soldiers  in  the 
ranks  of  a  great  party.  Wildman  was  one  of  those  whom 
revolution  is  apt  to  bring  to  the  surface — a  soldier  of  adven- 
ture whose  cue  it  was  to  make  his  own  fortune  in  the  fray. 
With  shrewd  discernment,  he  had  seen  in  Cromwell,  still  but 
a  captain  in  the  army  of  the  Parliament,  one  whom  it 
would  be  profitable  to  serve,  and  he  had  attached  himself 
closely  to  him.  By  his  ready  wit,  his  quick  and  facile  pen, 
his  marvellous  power  of  discerning  motives,  and  of  learning 
the  methods  of  directing  the  currents  of  popular  enthusiasm, 
Wildman  made  himself  an  invaluable  servant  to  Cromwell. 
He  knew,  as  few  others  did,  how  to  exasperate  Parliament 
and  balance  one  faction  against  another,  and  how  to  turn 
their  disputes  to  the  purposes  of  his  leader.  He  quitted  the 
army,  without  loss  of  his  influence  there,  and  became  a 
well-recognized  intermediary  in  all  Parliamentary  affairs. 
One   of   the   secrets  of   his   influence   was   that    he  never 


1655]  WILDMAN   AND   LILBURNE  367 

sought  to  proclaim  it  to  the  pubHc.     It  was  felt  rather 
than  seen. 

As  Cromwell's  designs  became  more  plain,  and  as  the 
smouldering  discontent  showed  itself  in  ominous  signs, 
Wildman's  attitude  changed.  His  power  of  intrigue  was 
exercised  in  a  new  direction,  and  Cromwell  learned  through 
his  spies  the  dangerous  operation  of  Wildman's  infectious 
discontent,  and  the  ramifications  of  his  plots.  But  he 
recognized  how  hazardous  it  was  to  strike  a  blow  at  random 
against  one  who  knew  so  many  of  his  own  secrets,  and  had 
helped  in  so  many  of  his  earlier  designs.  Even  when  Wild- 
man  was  actually  arrested,  with  ample  evidence  of  his 
intrigues  around  him,  and  in  possession  of  incriminatory 
papers  containing  bitter  denunciations  of  the  Protector — 
even  then,  Cromwell  did  not  venture  to  come  to  conclusions 
with  a  foe  of  so  much  resource.  Wildman  was  imprisoned, 
and  the  preparations  for  a  prosecution  were  instituted. 
But  either  prosecution  would  have  revealed  too  much, 
or  it  was  hoped  that  Wildman's  powers  would  once 
more  be  enlisted  in  Cromwell's  service.  He  was  set  at 
liberty,  and  again  resorted,  with  marked  success,  to  his  old 
life  of  intrigue.  To  know  more  of  his  mysterious  operations 
would  teach  us  much  of  the  actual  state  of  opinion  at  the 
time.  We  can  recognize  in  him  only  a  stormy  petrel  of 
politics,  whose  ambition  was  not  place  or  outward  power, 
but  to  hang  upon  the  skirts  of  the  tempest,  and  to  breathe 
its  bracing  atmosphere. 

The  other,  of  a  different  character,  and  less  nimble  in- 
tellect, who  also  caused  the  Protector  trouble  at  this  time, 
was  John  Lilburne.  He  had  been  one  of  the  wildest  en- 
thusiasts amongst  the  agitators  of  the  army,  and  was  idolized 
by  the  keener  fanatics  in  its  ranks.  In  1643  he  had  been 
made  prisoner  at  Brentford,  and  was  saved  from  summary 
execution  only  by  the  threat,  on  the  part  of  the  Parliament, 


368  CROMWELL'S  PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

of  stern  reprisals  on  their   Royalist   prisoners.     While  his 
fate  was  undecided,  he  managed  to  escape,  and  again  became 
one  of  the  most  notable  of  the  fiery  spirits  in  the  army. 
Cromwell   used   his  influence  in  all  his  contests  with  the 
Parliament,    and   found  in   him   one  of   those  who   could 
secure   the   firm  allegiance  of    the   army.      He    defended 
his  henchman  against  the  Parliament,  who  were  incensed 
at   his   outspoken   attacks,  and  he  checked   severely    any 
censures  with  which  they  endeavoured  to  assail  Lilburne. 
But     the     power     that     he     had     thus     cherished     soon 
became  uncomfortably  intractable.    Lilburne's  enthusiasm 
would  not   bend   to   the   necessities   of   pohtical  intrigue ; 
and    when    Cromwell's    tyrannical    designs    became    more 
clear,  they  found    no    bolder   denouncer   than   the   former 
tool  of  Cromwell  in  his  attacks  upon  the  Parliament.     His 
taunts    against    the    Protector's    falsehood    and    hypocrisy 
became  too  outspoken  to  be  passed  over  with  the  contemp- 
tuous negligence  that  Cromwell  would  willingly  have  shown. 
His  Council   pronounced   Lilburne  guilty  of  high  treason, 
and  even  against  his  will,  Cromwell  was  forced  to  bring  the 
charges  to  the  issue  of  a  trial.    Had  the  matter  been  less 
notorious,  means  could  easily  have    been  found    to  crush 
in  secret  so  troublesome  a  foe ;    but  secret   methods  were 
impossible  in  such   a  case.    The   army   would  not   suffer 
their  champion  to  suffer  in  silence,  or  by  the  quiet  action 
of  arbitrary  power.     The  arm  of  the  law  must  be  invoked, 
and  it  must  be  allowed  to  operate  on  stricter  rules  than  were 
required  in  the  case  of  any  RoyaHst  plot.    In  the  proceedings, 
Lilburne  showed  that  boldness  which  the  consciousness  of 
the  support  of  the  army  gave  him.    He  browbeat  judge  and 
counsel,  and  stubbornly  refused  to  palliate  his  attacks  upon 
the  Protector.    Against  a  usurper,  he  alleged,  no  act  of 
high  treason  could  be  committed.    He  had  declared  only 
what  all  men  knew  to  be  true ;  he  was  the  assertor  of  their 


1654]  TROUBLES   OF   THE   KING  369 

liberties,  and  could  easily  have  served  his  own  interests 
by  preserving  his  old  friendship  for  the  tyrant.  It  was 
because  he  refused  to  do  so  that  he  was  now  arraigned. 
It  was  to  no  purpose  that  the  judge  urged  that  the  charge 
of  high  treason  was  fully  proved.  Lilburne  was  trium- 
phantly absolved  by  the  jury,  and  Cromwell's  critical  posi- 
tion disabled  him  from  showing  resentment  at  their  action. 
By  one  whom  he  had  regarded  as  a  useful  tool  he  had  suffered 
a  repulse  that  was  worse  than  a  defeat  in  the  field.  He  had 
learned  the  temper  of  the  nation  in  a  way  about  which 
mistake  was  impossible.  He  could  only  keep  Lilburne  in 
prison  in  defiance  of  the  law ;  no  sterner  action  was  possible 
without  evoking  a  storm  which  even  Cromwell  would  have 
been  powerless  to  resist.  It  was  an  incident  like  this 
which  gave  to  a  distant  observer  like  Hyde  that  trust 
in  the  slow  ripening  of  the  nation's  indignation  which 
supplied  his  only  hope.  In  all  other  aspects  the  power  of 
the  usurper  seemed  to  gain  in  security  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

The  time  arrived  in  June,  1654,  when  the  King's  con- 
tinued residence  in  France,  long  irksome,  finally  became 
impossible.  A  treaty  between  Cromwell  and  the  French 
Crown  was  all  but  arranged.  Spain  and  Flanders,  as  well 
as  Holland,  were  already  closed  against  the  King.  Ready 
as  he  was  to  seek  some  other  abode,  it  was  difficult  to  say 
where  it  was  to  be  found.  It  would  have  been  madness 
now  to  attempt  a  landing  on  any  part  of  British  territory. 
Middleton  and  some  other  Scottish  adherents  were  true  to 
their  loyalty ;  but  they  recognized  that  quiescence  was 
their  wisest  policy  for  the  present.  Enthusiastic  attempts, 
like  that  of  young  Wogan,  who  marched  safely  with  a 
small  band  through  England  to  join  Middleton  in  Scotland, 
and  found  liis  grave  there,  proved,  indeed,  that  Charles 
had   passionate  supporters,  who  would   brave  any  danger 

VOL.  I.  2  b 


370  CEOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

in  his  cause,  and  that  they  had  secret  sympathizers  at 
home  ;  but  such  attempts  led  only  to  a  waste  of  noble 
lives,  and  were  not  to  be  encouraged.  Yet  something 
must  be  found  as  an  alternative  to  the  wretched  life 
at  St.  Germains.  No  one  amongst  the  small  band  of  the 
King's  counsellors  found  the  life  in  France  more  irksome 
than  did  Hyde.  Ormonde  shared  all  his  views  and 
counsels  ;  but  Ormonde's  position  was  too  secure  to  make 
him  the  avowed  object  of  the  petty  cabals  of  the  Court. 
It  was  upon  Hyde  that  all  their  venom  was  directed.  He 
was  blamed  when  this  or  that  scheme  for  a  Catholic  alliance, 
or  some  hare-brained  plan  of  matrimonial  connection  for 
the  King,  was  discouraged  and  laid  aside.  So  thoroughly 
had  the  Queen  become  imbued  with  suspicions  against 
him,  that  she  openly  avoided  any  intercourse,  and  compelled 
Hyde,  in  self-respect,  to  refrain  from  ever  showing  himself 
in  her  presence.  To  her  intimates,  she  made  no  secret  of 
her  wish  to  separate  him  from  the  King ;  and  Hyde  would 
readily  have  fulfilled  her  wish,  had  not  his  sense  of  duty 
forced  him  to  remain  amid  the  sordid  cabals  and  vexatious 
jealousies  which  encompassed  him. 

A  community  of  hatred  makes  strange  bed-fellows  ;  and 
even  in  his  annoyance  Hyde  found  his  sense  of  humour 
stirred  by  an  odd  combination  amongst  his  foes.  The 
remnants  of  the  Presbyterian  party  at  the  Court  resolved 
to  petition  the  King  against  the  wicked  opposition  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who  frowned  upon  their  hopes 
of  still  stirring  up  a  party  for  the  King  in  Scotland.  At  the 
same  time  the  Roman  Catholic  party,  headed  by  the  Queen, 
conceived  that  the  only  chance  for  Charles  was  reliance  on 
their  aid,  which  would  serve  to  restore  him  were  it  not  for 
the  machinations  of  Hyde.  Both  parties  combined  their 
forces  and  resolved  together  to  send  memorials  to  the  King, 
which  they  busied  themselves  in  concocting.     A  faithless 


1654]  INTRIGUES   AGAINST   HYDE  371 

ally  betraj^ed  their  purpose  to  Charles,  who  dealt  with  it 
in  that  happy  spirit  of  banter  which  never  forsook  him, 
and  perhaps  helped  to  ease  an  intolerable  situation.  At 
the  Queen's  dinner-table,  he  asked  "  When  the  petitions 
against  the  Chancellor  were  to  be  presented  ?  "  and  the  jest 
happily  frustrated  the  ridiculous  scheme.  But  it  left  the 
Queen  none  the  less  exasperated,  and  she  had  the  sympathy 
of  the  Queen-Mother  of  France,  who  naturally  detested  any 
influence  that  interposed  itself  between  a  mother  and  a  royal 
son.  Again  Charles  managed  to  turn  the  quarrel  to  ridicule. 
He  took  Ormonde  and  Hyde  to  a  masque  at  Court,  and 
seated  them  next  to  the  royal  party.  The  Queen-Mother, 
who  did  not  know  Hyde  by  sight,  asked,  "  Who  was  the  fat 
man  sitting  next  Lord  Ormonde  ?  "  "  That  is  the  naughty 
man,"  said  Charles,  "  who  causes  all  the  mischief,  and  sets 
me  against  my  mother."  Hyde  was  reduced  to  blushes  ; 
but  the  embarrassment  of  the  Queen  was  not  less  than  his 
own.  Explanations  followed,  and  the  jest  once  more  eased 
the  situation  for  the  time.  But  the  intrigues  soon  broke 
out  again. 

This  time  the  source  of  trouble  was  that  Mr.  Eobert 
Long,  who  turns  up  occasionally  during  these  years,  as 
one  of  those  who  by  assiduous  self-seeking  obtained  a 
transient  influence  of  the  intriguing  kind.  He  had  before 
been  a  creature  of  the  Queen  and  Jermyn,  and  as  their  tool 
and  emissary  was  in  bad  odour  with  the  more  serious  adherents 
of  the  King.  But  he  had  for  some  reason  fallen  into  the 
ill-graces  of  the  Queen,  and  in  a  sort  of  petty  revenge,  had 
allowed  his  tongue  to  run  too  freely  on  the  disputes  between 
the  King  and  his  mother.  At  her  instigation  he  had  been 
removed  from  the  Council  and  from  the  office  of  secretary, 
which  he  had  somehow  managed  to  secure — the  duties  of 
the  office  being  imposed  on  Hyde,  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.    Peace  was  now  patched  up  between  Long  and 


372  CROMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

the  faction  of  the  Queen,  and  at  their  instigation  he  peti- 
tioned to  be  restored  to  his  office.     The  King  was  in  no  mood 
to  yield  to  such  caprices,  and  rejected  the  petition.    Another 
ground  of  accusation  was  next  laid  at  the  Chancellor's  door. 
A  plot  was  arranged,  to  suborn  some  worthless  evidence 
for  a  ridiculous  story  of  Hyde's  having  visited  England 
after  his  return  from  Spain,  and  having  been  in  personal 
communication  with  Cromwell.    Herbert,  now  Keeper  of 
the  Seal,  showed  his  usual  malignity  in  giving  some  credence 
to   this   absurd   concoction.     It   was  finally   crushed   only 
when  it  was  denounced  in  no  measured  terms  by  the  King 
as  a  false  and  wicked  charge,  which  discredited  all  concerned 
in  it.    Herbert's  spleen  was  only  the  more  excited  by  the 
exposure  of  such  petty  gossip,  and  he  attempted  to  renew  the 
attack  upon  Hyde,  by  repeating  stories  which  had  reached 
him  of  aspersions  cast  upon  the  King  by  the  Chancellor. 
Hyde   asked    only   to   be   brought   face   to   face  with  his 
slanderer ;   and  on  inquiry  it  turned  out  that  Lord  Gerard 
had  been  the  authority  for  the  childish  story.    With  all 
gravity  Gerard  told  the  Council  how  upon  one  occasion  when 
he    and    Hyde  were    driving    in   company,   Hyde    had— 
apparently  after  Gerard  had  led  the  way— spoken  in  no 
guarded  terms  of  the  King's  inattention  to  business.    Hyde 
confessed   that— although   he   had   no   recollection   of   the 
incident— it  may  very  well  have  been  true,  and  certainly 
expressed    his    feelings.    Lord    Gerard    and    he,    however, 
were  in  no  such  friendly  terms  that  he  was  Hkely  to  have 
made  him  his  confidant.    With  singular  tactlessness  Herbert 
still  urged  the  seriousness  of  the  charge,  until  the  King 
himself  silenced  him,  and  said  "  that  he  did  really  believe 
the  Chancellor  had  used  these  very  words,  because  he  had 
often  said  that  and  much  more  to  himself,  which  he  had 
never   taken  ill."    He   declared   that   "he  was   very  well 
satisfied  in  the  Chancellor's  affection,  and  took  nothing  ill 


1654]  HYDE   AND   THE   QUEEN  373 

that  he  had  said."  That  declaration  closed  the  silly  in- 
cident ;  but  it  serves  as  a  mirror  of  the  petty  malignity  that 
prevailed  in  that  sordid  circle. 

It  was  little  wonder  that  the  King  and  all  those  of  his 
adherents  who  did  not  enjoy  the  atmosphere  of  intrigue 
were  eager  to  get  away  from  these  degrading  bickerings.  The 
only  question  was  how  the  necessary  means  of  discharging 
debts  and  meeting  the  expenses  of  a  journey  were  to  be  ob- 
tained. As  soon  as  that  could  be  managed,  Charles  resolved 
to  join  his  sister,  the  Princess  of  Orange,  at  Spa.  Fortunately 
the  Cardinal  was  as  anxious  to  speed  his  unwilling  guests  as 
they  were  to  go.  He  drove  a  hard  bargain  for  the  purchase  of 
some  cannon  and  equipment  which  was  all  that  remained  from 
Prince  Rupert's  fleet,  now  back  in  port  after  a  privateering 
voyage.  To  that  he  added  some  grudging  gifts  from  the  Court 
of  France,  and  with  this  supply,  and  £3000  sent  him  by  loyal 
adherents  in  England,  who  were  anxious  to  see  their  King 
free  from  the  humiliating  abode  in  France,  Charles  was 
enabled  to  shake  off  an  irksome  hospitality.  Jermyn,  of 
course,  stayed  with  the  Queen,  and  the  Lord  Keeper  Herbert 
was  told  that  his  personal  attendance  was  not  required  by 
the  King.  Charles,  for  some  years,  found  a  refuge,  pleasant 
at  least  in  contrast,  in  the  independent  German  States. 

Before  he  left  Paris  with  his  master,  Hyde  had  a  last 
interview  with  the  Queen.  Charles  desired  that  the  long 
estrangement  should  be  ended,  and  hoped  some  good  effect 
from  the  interview.  Henrietta  upbraided  Hyde  with  his 
neglect  of  her  interest  and  authority,  with  his  avoidance  of 
her  presence,  and  with  such  lack  of  respect  as  only  her 
regard  for  the  King  prevailed  with  her  to  endure.  Hyde 
easily  explained  his  not  resorting  to  her  presence,  as  caused 
by  her  own  studied  neglect.  The  last  thing  he  could  ever 
feel  was  disrespect  for  the  wife  of  his  dead  master  ;  but  he 
desired  only  to  learn  how  he  had  given  offence.    The  pride 


374  CKOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

of  the  Queen  was  too  sorely  touched  to  suffer  her  to  make 
amends.  "  She  would  be  glad  to  see  reason  to  change  her 
opinion,"  she  said  ;  and  a  curt  dismissal  forced  Hyde  to 
leave  her  with  the  breach  unhealed.  In  June,  1654,  the 
King,  with  Hyde  and  Ormonde,  quitted  Paris.  When  he 
reached  Spa,  Wilmot  (now  Earl  of  Rochester)  joined  him 
from  his  mission  to  the  German  Diet,  where  he  had  gone  to 
raise  some  money  for  the  King.  He  had  met  with  some 
success,  and  a  sum  of  £10,000 — impaired  by  the  costs  of  the 
mission,  and  the  vain  projects  into  which  the  Earl's  ambition 
pushed  him — came  to  the  coffers  of  the  King  from  this 
source.  The  sum  was  small,  but  Charles  was  persuaded 
to  curtail  his  own  expenditure  to  narrow  limits,  and  the 
cost  of  his  household,  Hyde  tells  us,  did  not  now  exceed  six 
hundred  pistoles  a  month.  An  outbreak  of  smallpox  at 
Spa  compelled  him  to  move  to  Aix,  where  he  was  received 
with  all  civility  ;  and  there  he  was  joined  by  Hyde's  faithful 
friend  "  the  good  old  secretary  Nicholas."  Charles  had 
abler  counsellors,  but  no  more  sterling  friend,  than  this 
veteran,  who  had  served  his  father  long  and  well. 

The  years  that  follow  present  a  strange  picture  of  mingled 
hope  and  despair ;  of  unremitting  watchfulness  on  the 
part  of  Hyde,  who,  by  correspondence  and  conference,  did 
bis  best  to  estimate  the  changing  phases  of  public  opinion 
in  England,  and  alternately  kept  alive  the  loyalty  and 
checked  the  rashness  of  the  Royalist  party  there.  Discontent 
was  rife  enough  in  England,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  it, 
and  the  hopes  derived  from  it,  should  be  exaggerated  in  the 
telling.  Charles  had  a  happy  humour  that  beguiled  the 
dreariness  of  exile.  His  reception  at  different  places  of 
abode  was  cordial  enough.  Hyde  gives  us  no  lurid  picture 
of  the  adventures  of  these  years,  and  if  his  sterner  sense 
of  rectitude  was  shocked  by  some  scandalous  episodes 
in  the  King's  life,  he  had  enough  knowledge  of  the  world 


1654]      MOVEMENTS   OF   THE   EXILED   COURT    375 

not  to  dwell  upon  such  incidents.  In  practice,  as  well  as 
in  the  pages  of  his  history,  he  did  his  best  to  draw  a  veil 
over  all  that  detracted  from  that  dignity  to  which  his  master 
gave  but  little  heed.  In  after  days  he  was  forced  to  be 
more  outspoken. 

From  Aix  the  Court  moved  to  Cologne,  where  a  reception 
no  less  cordial  was  given  them  by  the  citizens  of  the  town. 
Even  the  zeal  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  which  banished 
all  Protestants  from  the  city,  did  not  prevent  them  from 
receiving  the  King  with  ready  hospitahty,  and  tolerating 
the  exercise  of  Anglican  worship  in  their  midst.  Nowhere 
did  ho  find  kinder  treatment,  or  surroundings  better  suited 
to  his  taste ;  and  Hyde,  while  concealing  the  less  edifying 
particulars  of  the  royal  conduct,  is  glad  to  record  that  Charles 
gave  some  hours  each  day  to  retirement  and  the  study  of 
Italian  and  French.  The  King's  life  at  this  time  was  simple 
enough,  and  the  scanty  resources  which  he  was  able  to  beg 
from  the  German  princes  did  not  permit  him  even  to  indulge 
in  the  luxury  of  a  coach.  At  no  period  does  Charles  seem 
to  have  been  more  amenable  to  wise  guidance,  and  to  have 
shown  more  judgment  in  his  political  action.  He  managed 
to  maintain  the  loyalty  of  his  English  friends,  while  de- 
precating any  rash  or  ill-timed  attempts,  and  he  checked, 
with  much  firmness,  the  efforts  of  the  Queen  to  convert  his 
youngest  brother,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  to  Roman  Catho- 
licism. Under  the  influence  of  Montague,  who  managed  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  her  by  his  new  zeal  as  a  convert 
to  her  faith,  the  young  Duke  had  been  sent  to  the  Abbey 
of  Pontoise,^  where  his  religious  principles  were  to  be  per- 
verted. The  attempt  was  happily  foiled,  and  Charles 
exerted  his  authority  by  sending  Ormonde  to  France,  with 
peremptory  orders  to  bring  his  brother  to  Cologne.  In  spite 
of  all  the  irritation  shown  by  the  Queen,  who  swore  that 

'  Of  which  Montague  was  Abbot. 


376  CROMWELL'S   PEOTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

she  would  not  concern  herself  with  the  Duke  further,  nor 
see  him  any  more,  the  mission  was  successfully  accomplished. 
About  the  same  time  there  was  a  change  in  the  circum- 
stances of  Hyde's  family  which  was  destined  to  have  eventful 
consequences.     The  Princess  of  Orange  had  been  attracted 
by  Anne  Hyde,  his  daughter,  and  proposed  to  make  her 
one  of  her  maids  of  honour.     Hyde  at  first  strongly  opposed 
the  proposal.    He  did  not  wish  to  separate  his  daughter 
from  her  mother,  and  was  averse  to  the  new  surroundings 
amidst  which  she  would  be  placed.    Such  a  destiny  had  no 
charm  in  his  eyes,  and  he  foresaw  only  too  clearly  that  her 
selection  would  give  new  grounds  for  the  jealousy  of  the 
Queen.    But  the  Princess  was  firm  in  her  purpose,  and  had 
no  mind  to  be  governed  by  the  Queen  in  the  ordering  of  her 
household.     Charles    also    strongly    supported    the    design, 
and  Hyde's  only  hope  of  averting  it  lay  in  what  he  thought 
would  be  the  certain  objection  of  his  wife.     But  the  Princess 
thought  she  could  manage  that  part  of  the  business,  and  it 
was  found  that  Lady  Hyde  entertained  none  of  the  objections, 
as  she  was  doubtless  unable  to  estimate  the  dangers,  foreseen 
by    her   husband.    Anne   Hyde    became   attached   to   the 
Princess's  household,  and  was  now  one  of  the  Court  circle. 
With  whatever  misgivings,  Hyde  was  obliged  to  submit  to 
an  arrangement  which  was  pressed  so  strongly  by  those 
whose  wishes  he  could  not  oppose.^ 

But  the  quiet  of  Cologne  was  soon  disturbed  by  rumours 
of  new  attempts  in  England.  The  evidence  of  widespread 
discontent  in  England  stimulated  the  hopes  of  the  Royahsts, 
and  made  them  fancy  that  the  Government  was  less  securely 
settled  than  it  was.  Secret  murmurings,  spreading  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  gave  a  semblance  of  unanimity  amongst 
the  opponents  of  Cromwell  which  did  not  really  exist.     To 

'  For  Anne  Hyde's  letter  to  her  father  at  this  time  (October  19,  1654), 
see  Cal.  of  Clarendon  Papers  at  Bodleian,  ii.  401. 


1655]  KOYALIST  ATTEMPTS  377 

have  united  together  all  the  scattered  elements  of  resistance, 
and  to  have  brought  them  to  act  in  combination,  would 
have  required  resources  in  men  and  money  far  beyond  the 
power  of  the  Eoyahst  party.     Emissaries  came  and  went 
between  England  and  the  King  with  apparent  ease.      Their 
movements  seemed  to  baffle  the  Government,  and  the  dis- 
contented found  themselves  emboldened  by  the  apathy  of 
those  in  authority,  and  were  persuaded  to  exaggerate  their 
own  power  by  the  ineffective  measures  which  seemed  to  be 
taken  to  expose  or  thwart  their  designs.    But  Cromwell's 
spies  were  in  reality  far  more  active  than  they  knew.     Nothing 
could  be  better  calculated  to  justify  stern  measures  than  to 
allow  plots  to  grow  until  they  ran  into  the  hazard  of  some 
rash  attempt.    Eochester's  ill-governed  ambition,  and  his 
hopes  of  making  himself  the  potent  instrument  in  an  over- 
throw of  the  Government,  led  him  to  make  a  dangerous 
expedition,  in  disguise,  to  England.     He  mingled  freely  with 
the  malcontents  ;    came  to  be  unduly  sanguine  as  to  their 
numbers  and   strength,  and   fancied   that   the  deep-rooted 
hatred  of  Cromwell's  rule  of  which  he  heard  on  all  sides,  would 
supply  the  deficiency  of  organization  and  concerted  plans. 
Eeckless  attempts  were  made  in  various  places — not  perhaps 
without  the  knowledge  and  the  secret  connivance  of  the 
Government.    Many  of  those  who  shared  the  plots  were 
themselves  in  communication  with  the  Government,  and  acted 
as  provocative  agents  in  mad  schemes  which  would  only 
expose  those  involved  in  them,  and  subject  them  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  law.^ 

'  On  October  Slat,  1655,  Cromwell  issued  a  Declaration  threatening 
severe  retaliatory  measures  against  Royalists,  including  a  proposal  to 
"  decimate  "  them,  or,  in  other  words,  fine  them  in  one-tenth  part  of  their 
remaining  property.  To  counteract  this,  Hyde  composed  and  caused  to 
be  published  in  England  what  jiurported  to  be  "  A  Letter  from  a  true  and 
faithful  member  of  Parliament,  and  one  faithfully  engaged  with  it  from 
the  beginning  of  the  war  to  the  end,  to  one  of  the  Lords  of  His  Highness's 
Council,"  in  which,  in  that  assumed  character,  he  deprecated  such  measures. 
He    refers  to  this  in  his  Life,  i.  308,  and  states  that  the  work  was  done  by 


378  CKOMWELL'S   PROTECTOKATE    [chap,  xiii 

For  the  moment  Eoyalist  hopes  ran  high.  Charles 
was  persuaded  to  move  secretly  to  Flushing,  and  there 
to  expect  the  summons  to  land  in  England,  where  a 
series  of  successful  risings  were  to  pave  the  way  for  his 
reception.  Hyde  passed  to  Breda,  where  his  family  were 
staying  in  a  house  provided  by  the  Princess  of  Orange, 
and  where  he  would  be  able  speedily  to  obey  the  orders 
of  the  King.  But  the  wild  schemes  came  to  nothing. 
Momentary  successes  were  quickly  extinguished.  The 
King's  devoted  adherents,  who  had  risked  all  for  his  cause, 
became  the  victims  of  justifiable  vengeance.  Rochester's 
usual  luck  enabled  him,  after  many  hazards,  to  return  in 
safety  to  the  King.  Once  more  the  Court  repaired,  under 
the  burden  of  added  disaster,  to  the  safe  retreat  of  Cologne. 
Cromwell  had  ample  justification  for  new  ruthlessness  of 
severity  in  the  maintenance  of  his  rule.  England  was 
parcelled  out  under  the  severe  arm  of  mihtary  authority, 
and  twelve  major-generals,  responsible  to  the  Protector 
alone,  were  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  the  various 
provinces.  The  Royalists  were  still  further  mulcted  by 
a  levy  of  one-tenth  upon  the  whole  of  such  property  as  was 
still  left  them.  Commissioners  were  appointed  to  administer 
this  ordinance  with  unsparing  severit}^  and  the  same  action 
which  still  further  crushed  the  Protector's  opponents, 
enabled  him  to  fill  the  coffers  of  the  State  without  resort 
to  heavy  general  taxation. 

After  the  King's  return  to  Cologne  a  discovery  was  made 
which  proved  how  much  the  poison  of  treachery  had  pene- 
trated into  the  Royalist  schemes.  Amidst  the  Court  circle 
there  had   been   one  young   gentleman,   named   Manning, 

command  of  the  King  ;  and  that  "  it  was  made  great  use  of  to  inflame  the 
people,  and  make  them  sensible  of  the  destruction  that  attended  them,  and 
was  thought  then  to  produce  many  good  effects."  The  ruse  was  successful, 
and  the  pamphlet  was  ascribed  to  Sir  Henry  Vane.  The  manuscript  has 
now  been  identified  in  the  Bodleian  papers  (see  Calendar  of  Clarendon 
Papers,  iii.  No.  216). 


1655]  MANNING'S   TKEACHERY  379 

who  had  hereditary  and  personal  claims  to  some  regard. 
His  father,  Colonel  Manning,  a  Roman  CathoHc,  had  been 
killed,  and  he  himself  severely  wounded,  fighting  for  the  King. 
He  professed  abundant  enthusiasm  for  the  Royalist  cause, 
and  a  burning  desire  to  avenge  his  father's  death.  He 
accounted  for  the  supply  of  money,  which  enabled  him  to 
live  in  good  style,  by  saying  that  he  had  sold  the  remnant 
of  his  father's  estate,  and  was  now  intent  upon  risking 
his  fortunes  with  the  Royalist  cause.  To  disarm  suspicion 
still  more  he  now  professed  the  Protestant  religion,  and 
attended  at  worship  with  the  King.  An  agreeable  per- 
sonality, and  quick  abihties,  ingratiated  him  with  all,  and  he 
managed  to  stimulate  the  ambition  of  Rochester  by  pro- 
mising to  place  at  his  disposal  a  small  but  serviceable  band, 
whom  he  had  already  enhsted  in  England,  and  who  would 
attend  his  lordship  on  his  landing.  By  Rochester  he  was 
introduced  to  the  King,  who  looked  with  favour  on  his  pro- 
jects and  commended  him  to  Hyde.  But  Hyde  had  already 
seen  him,  and  was  not  satisfied  as  to  the  wisdom  or  even 
as  to  the  honesty  of  his  plans.  Manning  professed  to  be 
in  the  confidence  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  who,  he  said, 
was  eager  to  help  the  King,  and  had  £3000  in  readiness  at 
Wilton  to  be  dehvered  upon  the  mandate  of  the  King.  With 
some  success  he  managed  to  learn  dangerous  secrets  ;  but 
Hyde's  suspicions  still  made  him  cautious,  and  he  had  good 
reason  to  beheve  that  Pembroke  had  none  of  the  designs 
attributed  to  him,  and  was  in  no  position  to  command  £3000 
of  ready  money.  Such  suspicions  were  deemed  by  the 
others  to  be  overstrained,  and  to  be  merely  part  and  pai-cel 
of  Hyde's  usual  ill-timed  caution.  It  was  only  after  the  return 
to  Cologne,  where  Manning  presented  himself  after  having 
spied  on  the  King's  motions  at  Mushing,  that  the  suspicions 
received  confirmation.  Manning's  correspondence  was 
seized,  and  showed  that  he  was  in  constant  and  regular 


380  CROMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

communication  with  Thurloe,  Cromwell's  secretary.  He 
was  arrested  at  his  lodgings,  and  was  found  to  have  con- 
cocted elaborate  stories  of  plots  that  had  no  existence,  as 
well  as  to  have  betrayed  all  the  secrets  that  he  had  learned. 
He  made  a  full  and  free  confession,  admitted  that  he  despised 
the  work  which  he  was  paid  for  doing,  and  pleaded  only 
that  by  falsifying  his  narrative  to  his  paymasters  he  had 
misled  them,  and  done  no  harm  to  the  Royalist  cause.  He 
is  one  of  those  waifs  and  strays  of  civil  discord  for  whom  it 
is  impossible  not  to  have  a  certain  pity.  Honest  at  the 
outset,  well-gifted  by  nature,  touched  by  the  love  of  adven- 
ture, and  banished  by  fortune  from  any  fair  way  of  life  ;  with 
the  sense  of  honour  blunted  by  harsh  experience,  and  learn- 
ing by  degrees  to  cloak  his  misdoings  by  a  specious  excuse, 
ready  to  accept  the  pay  of  the  usurper,  but  perhaps  inclined 
at  any  moment  to  turn  his  energies  to  the  cause  which  was 
his  own  both  by  inheritance  and  by  choice — his  was  a 
character  only  too  hkely  to  be  developed  in  the  atmosphere 
of  an  exiled  Court,  filled  by  needy  and  hungry  adventurers. 
It  is  not  likely  that  in  Charles's  Court  he  found  any  striking 
unselfishness  of  loyalty,  which  might  have  recalled  him  to  a 
nicer  sense  of  honour.  But  the  evil  he  had  wrought  could 
not  be  condoned  ;  and  in  the  exercise  of  a  jurisdiction; 
which  was  strangely  enough  accorded  by  their  hosts,  the 
Council  ordered  Manning  to  be  shot.  No  effort  was  made 
by  Cromwell  to  intervene  for  his  release.  To  have  made 
such  an  effort  might  have  betrayed  a  complicity  with  his 
plots  which  it  was,  perhaps,  deemed  prudent  not  to  pubhsh. 
A  change  in  Cromwell's  attitude  towards  France  and 
Spain  now  made  a  notable  alteration  in  the  position  of  the 
King.  The  alhance  between  England  and  France  became 
more  close,  and  signs  were  not  wanting  of  an  impending 
breach  with  Spain.  Two  great  fleets  were  equipped  ;  the 
one,  under  the  command  of  Blake,  was  to  take  vengeance, 


I 


1656]       CROMWELL'S   BREACH  WITH  SPAIN       381 

in  the  first  place,  on  the  pirates  of  Algiers  and  Tunis  for 
their  attacks  on  English  trade,  and  thereafter  to  capture 
the  fleet  of  Spanish  galleons  on  their  return  from  the  Spanish 
colonies.  The  other,  under  Penn  and  Venables,  was  dis- 
patched to  the  West  Indies,  to  inflict  a  deadly  blow  upon 
Spain  in  that  region.  Cromwell  put  full  trust  in  the  fidelity 
of  Blake.  He  guarded  himself  against  the  possible  defection 
of  Penn  and  Venables  by  sending  them  to  sea  with  sealed 
orders,  and  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  sent.  Blake  spread  the  terror  of  the  English  name 
to  the  walls  of  Algiers  and  Tunis,  and  if  he  only  partially 
succeeded  in  the  attack  upon  the  Spanish  merchant  fleet, 
he  did  enough  to  rouse  the  alarm  of  an  enemy  so  feeble.  Penn 
and  Venables  failed  completely  in  their  attack  upon  His- 
paniola,  and  their  capture  of  Jamaica — then  esteemed  of 
little  importance — did  not  avail  to  save  them  from  the 
wrath  of  Cromwell.  On  their  return  they  were  both  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower.  A  half-hearted  execution  of  orders 
was  equivalent  to  treachery  in  Cromwell's  eyes. 

The  breach  with  Spain  was  now  complete,  and  Cromwell 
cemented  his  alliance  with  France  by  dispatching  6000  men 
to  aid  in  the  attack  on  Flanders.  As  a  return,  Dunkirk, 
when  captured,  was  to  be  placed  in  his  hands. 

In  September,  1656,  he  deemed  it  necessary  again  to 
summon  a  Parliament.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  his  power 
was  sufficient  to  warrant  him  in  allowing  a  free  election. 
This  proved  an  error.  When  ParHament  met,  he  found 
himself  faced  by  opposition  far  stronger  than  before.  He 
could  only  resort  to  his  old  plan  of  requiring  a  subscription, 
from  all  permitted  to  sit,  to  an  undertaking,  that  they  would 
do  nothing  prejudicial  to  the  Government  as  estabhshed. 
Those  who  refused  to  take  it  had  to  return  to  their  homes. 
For  a  time  all  went  well.  Any  attempt  on  the  life  of  the  Pro- 
tector was  declared  to  be  treason.    New  taxes  were  imposed, 


382  CEOMWELL'S   PKOTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

and  tonnage  and  poundage  was  granted  him  for  life.  But 
the  submission  was  only  on  the  surface.  There  was  a  strong 
under-current  of  opposition,  and  he  found  that  in  the  army 
there  was  a  considerable  faction  determined  to  curb  his  power. 
At  its  head  was  Lambert,  formerly  his  closest  ally,  now 
his  implacable  foe.  The  murmurs  against  the  major- 
generals  waxed  louder,  and  Cromwell  found  it  needful  to 
devise  new  methods  for  strengthening  his  authority.  Was 
it  possible  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  nobihty,  and  to  capture 
acquiescence  by  restoring  the  name  and  symbols  of  the 
older  monarchy  ? 

This  design  found  many  supporters.  It  was  pressed  upon 
Cromwell — outwardly  to  his  surprise  and  discomfiture — by  a 
powerful  section  amongst  his  party  ;  and  even  amongst  the 
Eoyalists  there  were  found  some  who  thought  the  design  might 
help  their  own  aims.  On  the  other  hand,  Lambert  and  a 
dominant  element  in  the  army  did  not  hesitate  to  avow  their 
invincible  opposition,  and  their  determination  to  carry  that 
opposition  to  the  death.  They  had  the  assent  of  many  of 
those  who  stood  closest  to  Cromwell,  and  who  were  allied  to 
him  by  marriage.  A  strong  party  in  the  Council,  and  the 
majority  in  Parliament,  favoured  the  design,  which  was 
ultimately  proposed  to  him  in  set  terms.  For  a  day  or  two 
he  wavered,  and  parried  the  proposal ;  at  length  he  was 
convinced  that  the  objections  were  insuperable.  One  of 
his  closest  and  most  intimate  adherents  declared  to  him 
that  "  if  ever  he  took  the  title  of  King  upon  him,  he  would 
kill  him."  It  was  confidently  reported  that  a  confederacy 
existed,  pledged  to  his  assassination  within  a  few  hours  after 
his  assumption  of  the  title.  After  a  long  struggle  with  him- 
self, he  finally  declined  the  project.  To  the  mind  of  Hyde, 
the  decision  sealed  the  fate  of  his  power.  Had  he  assumed 
the  name  of  King,  he  might,  Hyde  thinks,  have  captured 
some  of  the  old  loyalty  for  the  Crown. 


1657]        HUMBLE   PETITION   AND   ADVICE  383 

But  the  refusal  did  not  lessen  his  power  at  the  time,  nor 
his  boldness  in  its  exercise.  Even  those  who  resisted  the 
design  could  not  withstand  new  projects  for  confirming  his 
authority.  In  May,  1657,  there  was  presented  the 
"  Humble  Petition  and  Advice "  of  Parhament,  which 
invested  him  with  more  than  royal  authority,  in  aU  but 
name.  He  was  to  be  Chief  Magistrate,  though  under  the 
title  of  Protector,  instead  of  that  of  King ;  he  was  to  name 
his  successor,  and  was  to  summon  a  Parliament  of  two 
Houses  once  a  year  ;  a  Council  of  twenty-one  was  to 
assist  him  ;  and  an  ample  revenue  was  placed  at  his 
disposal  for  the  maintenance  of  the  navy  and  army 
and  of  the  civil  administration.  Save  for  legislation,  the 
Protector  would  find  in  Parliament  no  effective  curb  on  his 
supremacy.  In  June  he  was  installed  in  Westminster  Hall 
with  all  the  splendour  of  a  royal  function.  To  enable  him  to 
confirm  his  new  power  and  arrange  his  new  model  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  House  was  adjourned  till  January,  165^  ;  and 
meanwhile  all  mihtary  ofiicers  were  compelled  to  swear 
adherence  to  the  Humble  Petition  and  Advice.  His  eldest 
son,  Eichard,  was  sworn  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  appointed 
Chancellor  of  Oxford.  The  younger,  Henry,  was  named 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  To  draw  closer  his  bond  with  the 
nobility,  he  gave  his  two  daughters  in  marriage,  one  to  the 
heir  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  the  other  to  Lord  Falcon- 
bridge.  By  a  strange  fancy,  the  public  ceremonies  of  marriage 
according  to  the  prevailing  tenets,  were  confirmed  privately 
by  ordained  clergy  according  to  the  form  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer. 

The  added  dignity  of  his  power  at  home  was  enhanced 
by  further  triumphs  abroad.  Blake,  in  April  of  this  year, 
achieved  complete  success  in  the  capture  of  the  Spanish 
galleons  from  Peru  and  Mexico,  and  inflicted  upon  the 
Spanish  maritime  power  a  blow  so  crushing  that,  in  the 


384  CROMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

eyes  of  the  Spaniards,  the  sailors  who  won  "  this  unparalleled 
action  "  were  "  rather  devils  than  men."  It  was  the  greatest, 
but  it  was  the  last,  fight  of  that  incomparable  commander. 
When  he  sailed  upon  his  last  expedition  he  felt  that  the 
hand  of  death  was  upon  him.  His  illness  increased  as 
he  sailed  for  home,  and,  just  as  he  entered  the  Sound  of 
Plymouth,  the  man  who  had  done  more  than  any  other 
to  make  the  fleet  of  England  supreme  breathed  his  last. 
Hyde  was  not  blind  to  the  merit  even  of  an  enemy. 

"  He  was  the  first,"  he  says,  "  that  infused  that  propor- 
tion of  courage  into  the  seamen  by  making  them  see  by 
experience  what  mighty  things  they  could  do  if  they  were 
resolved  ;  and  taught  them  to  fight  in  fire  as  well  as  upon 
water ;  and  though  he  hath  been  very  well  imitated  and 
followed,  he  was  the  first  that  drew  the  copy  of  naval 
courage  and  bold  and  resolute  achievements." 

In  January,  1655,  the  two  Houses  met ;  and  after  the 
old  fashion  Cromwell  sent  Black  Rod  to  summon  the  Com- 
mons to  attend  him  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  addressed 
them  in  the  style  of  a  king.  But  when  the  Commons  met, 
it  was  soon  apparent  that  opposition  was  not  at  an  end. 
The  members  excluded  for  failure  to  subscribe  the  test  of 
submission  to  the  Protector  were  restored.  Vane  and 
Hazelrigg,  with  others,  at  once  questioned  the  methods  of 
Government.  By  what  authority,  it  was  asked,  did  the 
Protector  issue  writs  of  attendance  to  the  peers  ?  Who 
gave  to  those  of  the  other  House  the  title  of  Lords  ?  That 
was  a  power  that  must  rest  with  the  legally  constituted 
House  of  Commons,  and  with  that  alone. 

It  is  clear  that  their  contention  had  at  least  as  little 
basis  in  any  legal  right  as  that  of  Cromwell  himself.  Had 
he  assumed  the  title  of  King,  that  single  act  of  usurpation 
would  have  warranted  his  action  in  summoning  the  peers, 
and  would  have  been  a  sound  plea  in  law,  under  the  statute 


1657]  THE  KING  AND  SPAIN  385 

of  Henry  VII.,  to  justify  all  who  accepted  him  as  King  de 
facto.  Under  no  possible  construction  could  the  House  of 
Commons  claim  any  right  of  interference  with  the  other 
House.  Cromwell  had  small  difficulty  in  crushing  an  oppo- 
sition so  poorly  founded  and  with  exponents  of  so  little 
weight.  "  The  other  House,"  he  said,  "  were  lords,  and 
should  be  lords."  Let  them  set  to  work  upon  their  business  y 
and  waste  no  time  on  fruitless  discussions.  The  warning 
was  plain  enough ;  but  it  was  neglected,  and  Cromwell  had 
no  mind  to  prolong  a  futile  wrangle.  On  February  4th 
they  were  again  summoned  to  the  House  of  Lords  ;  and, 
after  being  rated  like  schoolboys,  were  sent  about  their 
business. 

Meanwhile  the  breach  between  Cromwell  and  Spain  had 
given  the  ffing  a  new  opportunity  by  which  his  advisers  were 
eager  to  profit.  Little  effective  aid  as  Spain  could  give  him, 
yet  even  a  nominal  recognition  by  that  power  would  greatly 
enhance  his  position.  The  overtures  of  the  exiled  Court 
might  perhaps  have  been  more  cordially  received  by  Spain, 
as  a  means  of  weakening  the  position  of  their  formidable 
foe,  had  it  not  been  for  Cardenas,  the  former  ambassador 
in  England.  He  knew  every  turn  of  English  politics,  and 
knew  also  how  little  a  Koyalist  alliance  could  benefit  one 
who,  like  himself,  had  been  a  keen  aUy  of  those  who  had 
destroyed  the  power  of  the  Crown.  His  whole  influence 
was  thrown  into  the  other  scale,  and  it  was  only  with  a 
niggardly  hand  that  Spain  dealt  out  any  assistance  to 
the  exiled  King.  The  King's  project  of  coming  to  Brussels 
was  strongly  opposed.  If  he  came  there,  it  was  alleged, 
without  proper  state,  it  would  be  a  blemish  on  the  honour 
of  Spain,  and  yet  the  resources  of  that  Crown  would  not 
permit  its  ministers  to  defray  the  cost  of  furnishing  the 
means  of  such  state.  They  were  unwilling  altogether 
to  reject  the  proffered  alHance  because  the  influence  of 
VOL.  I.  2   C 


386  CEOMWELL'S   PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

Charles  might  well  withdraw  the  Irish  from  the  army 
of  France  which  now  threatened  Flanders.^  Yet  they 
grudged  the  price  of  that  alliance,  and  the  utmost  con- 
cession that  could  be  got  was  permission  to  Charles  to 
reside  incognito  at  Bruges  ;  and  a  promise  that  when  a 
good  port  town  in  England  should  declare  for  the  King, 
Spain  would  assist  with  6000  foot  and  corresponding  trans- 
port and  ammunition.  With  these  terms  Charles  and  his 
advisers  were  fain  to  be  content ;  and  on  that  footing  the 
exiled  Court  had  taken  up  residence  at  Bruges  in  June,  1657. 
Spain  was  half-hearted  in  her  recognition  of  Charles, 
because  she  had  other  designs  and  other  allies,  which  it  was 
hoped  might  bring  her  more  effective  aid  in  England.  Car- 
denas had  established  relations  with  the  disaffected  Levellers 
in  the  English  army.  Sexby,^  who  had  been  an  enthusiastic 
supporter  of  the  popular  party,  had  been  one  of  those  most 
bitterly  disappointed  when  he  found  that  their  labours  had 
been  spent  in  vain,  and  that  instead  of  earning  freedom  they 
had  only  placed  on  themselves  a  yoke  of  tyranny  greater 
than  had  ever  before  been  felt  in  England.  He  had  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  Levellers  ;  but  for  some  years  he  had  been 
obliged  to  wander  about  the  country  in  disguise,  and  do  his 
best  to  propagate  his  views  by  obscure  pamphlets.  He  had 
visited  Brussels  and  Madrid,  and  had  given  early  intelligence 
to  Spain  of  the  destination  of  the  fleet  under  Penn  and  Venables. 
Of  his  zeal  and  sincerity  in  the  Royalist  cause  there  could  be 
no  doubt,  and  he  seems  to  have  impressed  those  who  dealt 
with  him  as  entirely  honest.     The  only  uncertainty  was  as 

>  There  was  undoubtedly  at  this  time  an  attempt  to  induce  the  King  to 
declare  himself  a  Roman  Catholic,  or  at  least  to  pledge  himself  to  grant 
indulgence  to  those  of  that  faith,  if  restored.  To  the  first  Hyde  was  in- 
vincibly opposed.  The  second,  he  had  to  point  out,  could  only  be  granted 
with  the  consent  of  Parliament.     See  Clarendon  State  Papers,  iii.  291. 

-  Edward  Sexby  was  a  cavalry  ofiBcer  and  a  close  follower  of  Cromwell. 
He  had  been  engaged  in  negotiations  for  arranging  an  alliance  between  the 
Parliament  and  Spain  against  France ;  and  when  this  was  abandoned,  his 
influence  was  gone,  and  he  began  to  plot  agamst  his  former  leader. 


1657]  SEXBY'S   SCHEMES  387 

to  his  power  of  organizing  any  effective  check  to  Cromwell's 
tyranny.  If  that  were  possible,  his  might  be  a  more  useful 
alhance  for  Spain  than  that  offered  by  the  exiled  Court. 
The  further  question  remained,  could  the  two  influences  be 
brought  to  converge  on  the  same  end  ? 

In  the  autumn  of  1656  Sexby  had  been  actively  engaged 
in  negotiations  with  Spain,  and  was  able  to  send  supplies 
to  his  sympathizers  in  England.  Although  he  abhorred  the 
lax  morality  and  scandalous  lives  of  the  Cavaliers,  he  was 
not  unwilling  to  join  in  a  Royalist  attempt,  provided  that 
he  were  assured  that  Charles,  if  restored,  would  respect  the 
liberties  which  Parliament  had  extorted,  and  would  make 
no  attempt  to  override  the  laws.  In  order  to  try  whether 
any  further  co-operation  were  possible,  Sexby  had  sought 
and  obtained,  towards  the  end  of  1656,  an  interview  with 
Charles,  It  is  characteristic  of  the  nature  of  the  man  that 
he  expressly  required  that  the  ceremony  of  genuflexion,  which 
his  conscience  could  not  accept,  should  not  be  demanded,^ 
as  it  had  not  been  demanded  of  him  by  Charles  I.  He 
had  all  the  obstinacy  and  determination  of  the  enthusiast ; 
and  strange  as  his  procedure  often  was,  he  was  apparently 
true  to  his  convictions,  and  moved  by  no  selfish  aims. 

It  is  hard  to  follow  the  thread  of  all  the  mysterious  and 
complicated  transactions  now  in  progress.  Spain  was  anxious 
to  secure  any  advantages  against  Cromwell  and  France. 
The  Spanish  ministers  recognized  that  there  was  little  hope 
of  any  effective  attempt  upon  England  by  the  Royalists  ; 
but  Charles  might  render  them  useful  aid  by  withdrawing 
the  Irish  contingent  from  the  French  army,  now  operating 
against  Flanders.  Sexby  and  the  Levellers  might,  on  the 
other  hand,  cause  serious  trouble  in  England,  and  might 
sow  the  seeds  of  disaffection  in  the  army.     Above  all,  in 

'  See  Calendar  of  Clarendon  Papers,  iii.  203.     Letter  from  Talbot  to  the 
King,  No.  616. 


888  CROMWELL'S    PROTECTORATE    [chap,  xiii 

their  fanatical  zeal,  they  had  no  scruple  in  carrying  on  plots 
for  Cromwell's  assassination  ;  and  that  event,  if  it  occurred, 
must  undoubtedly  paralyze  the  EngHsh  power.  Various  at- 
tempts were  actually  made 'without  success  ;  and  at  last,  in 
January,  1657,  a  plot  to  fire  Whitehall,  and  murder  Cromwell 
in  the  confusion,  was  betrayed,  and  its  chief  agent.  Miles 
Syndercombe,  a  close  ally  of  Sexby,  who  had  himself  been 
concerned  in  the  plot,  was  caught  and  condemned  to  death. 
On  the  morning  fixed  for  his  execution  he  was  found  dead 
in  his  bed  from  the  effects  of  poison.  The  discovery  in  no 
wise  checked  the  efforts  of  Sexby  and  others,  who  deemed 
that  the  murder  of  Cromwell  would  be  a  pious  deed.  We 
could  scarcely  expect  that  the  Spanish  Government  would 
have  any  scruple  about  the  methods  pursued  by  their  allies 
in  England,  and  by  them  Sexby  was  encouraged  in  the 
course  he  had  chosen.  In  the  autumn  of  1657  he  himself 
went  to  England  for  the  purpose.  But  he  was  discovered 
and  betrayed ;  and  rumours  that,  in  the  madness  that  seized 
on  him  in  prison,  he  was  likely  to  make  inconvenient  revela- 
tions, caused  much  perturbation  at  Charles's  Court.  His 
stormy  career  ended  shortly  after,  as  he  died  in  prison 

How  far  Hyde  and  his  fellow  councillors  had  definite 
knowledge  of  the  assassination  plots  is  a  question  which 
admits  of  no  very  definite  answer.  That  such  designs  were 
widely  talked  about,  and  were  approved  by  the  general 
verdict  of  the  party,  is  beyond  a  doubt.  But  between  such 
general  acceptance  of  a  vague  proposition  and  participa- 
tion in  a  definite  plot  there  is  a  wide  gulf.  No  member  of 
the  Cavalier  party  would  have  hesitated  for  a  moment,  if 
Cromwell  had  been  taken  prisoner  after  an  engagement,  in 
executing  him  summarily  by  martial  law ;  nor  could  they 
fairly  be  condemned  for  such  a  purpose.  Many  would 
probably  have  had  just  as  little  scruple  about  acting  towards 
him,  if  occasion  offered,  as  their  comrades  had  acted  towards 


1657]  ASSASSINATION   PLOTS  389 

Dorislaus  at  the  Hague  and  Ascham  in  Madrid.  But  between 
either  course  and  the  secret  bullet  or  the  dagger  of  the  dis- 
guised assassin  there  is  a  wide  difference.  It  is  evident  enough 
that,  although  not  participating  in  any  of  the  designs,  nor 
indicating  any  approval  of  them,  Hyde  had  clear  inti- 
mation from  his  correspondents  that  such  schemes  were 
on  foot.  It  was  hopeless  for  the  Eoyalists  to  secure  the 
Spanish  alliance  without  admitting  the  possibility  of  joining 
the  Levellers  in  any  armed  insurrection.  Neither  party 
to  the  transaction  shared  their  full  plans  with  the  other. 
Sexby  and  Wildman — for  the  latter  was  closely  associated 
with  Sexby — were  content  with  pledges  from  Charles  that 
there  should  be  no  overriding  of  liberty  and  no  vin- 
dictive reprisals.  The  Royalist  advisers  were  content 
that  the  Levellers  yielded  so  much  of  their  old  pre- 
judices as  to  acquiesce  in  the  restoration  of  the  King.  In 
the  methods  privately  pursued  by  either  partner  the  other 
shared  no  responsibility.  Both  Wildman  and  Sexby  made 
a  good  impression  on  their  temporary  allies.  Eeckless  con- 
spirator as  he  was  throughout  the  whole  of  a  long  career, 
Wildman  cannot  be  fairly  set  down  as  dishonest.  Sexby, 
with  far  less  ability,  had  all  the  courage  and  the  earnestness 
that  belong  to  the  honest,  although  fanatical,  enthusiast. 
Both  could  have  subscribed  to — if  they  did  not  actually 
share  in  the  authorship  of — the  famous  pamphlet  entitled 
"  Killing  no  Murder."  To  its  tenets  probably  the  majority 
of  the  Eoyalist  party  would  in  that  day  have  given  their 
assent.  To  give  direct  countenance  to  an  assassination  plot 
would  have  been  alien  at  once  to  the  feelings  and  the 
principles  of  Hyde.^    To  have  denounced  it  publicly,  or  to 

'  Hyde  mentions  the  pamphlet  "  Killing  no  Murder "  in  a  letter  to 

Nicholas,  but  only  as  a  curiosity  and  as  "  a  piece  fuU  of  wit,"  without  any 

judgment  as  to   its  doctrine.     He   speaks  of   it  as  a  revelation    and    not 

as  indicating  any  scheme  to  which  he  was  privy  (Clarendon  State  Papers, 

u.  343). 


390  CEOMWELL'S    PEOTECTORATE     [chap,  xiii 

have  separated  himself  from  all  who  held  it  to  be  justified, 
would  have  been  both  futile  and  impolitic.  Cromwell  had 
invoked  the  storm ;  it  was  not  from  his  bitterest  foes  that 
he  could  expect  protection  from  the  thunderbolts.  We 
must  not  forget  that  Hyde  had  distinct  evidence  that  Crom- 
well encouraged  similar  designs  against  the  King.  The 
names  of  the  agents  and  the  means  of  detecting  them  were 
supplied  to  Hyde  by  his  English  correspondents.  The  King 
was  to  be  attacked  when  he  was  "  taking  the  air  "  with 
few  attendants,  and  the  assassins  were  to  take  horse  to 
the  next  French  garrison,  where  they  were  assured  of 
security.^ 

Slow  as  were  the  movements  of  the  Spanish  Court,  the 
treaty  with  Charles  was  at  length  arranged,  and  it  materially 
improved  the  position  of  the  King.    He  was  now  provided 
with  a  regular  pension  by  Spain,  and  some  of  the  straits 
for  money,  which  had  put  a  severe  strain  on  Hyde's  power 
of  economy  and  his  devices  for  raising  revenue,  were  removed. 
Charles  was  now  able  to  decline  any  further  payments  from 
France,  and    thus    gained  freedom  to  act    independently 
of  that  power.     He  levied    four  regiments   of    foot,    and 
was  able  to  intervene  with  some  effect  for  the  defence  of 
Flanders  against  the  French  armies  under    Turenne.    At 
his  instigation  the  Irish  troops  in  the  French  service  with- 
drew with  their  officers  from  the  French  camp  ;    and  the 
Duke  of  York  threw  up  his  French  commission  and  joined 
the  King  at  Bruges.     Charles  now  found  himself  in  a  position 
where  active  warhke  measures   against   Cromwell  seemed 
more  possible,  and  he  was  pressed  with  urgency  by  his 
friends  at  home  to  make  a  new  attempt.    Even  his  coun- 
sellers  at  Bruges   became  persuaded  that  the  time  was 
approaching  for  some  greater  activity ;    and  in  January, 

'  See  Clarendon  Stale  Papers,  iii.  336,  341,  397.     Secretary  Thurloe  was 
said  to  have  given  the  instructions  personally. 


1658]         HYDE  MADE   LOKD   CHANCELLOR         391 

165f,  Ormonde  determined  personally  to  run  the  grave  risk 
of  a  visit  to  England  to  take  a  measure  of  their  hopes  there. 
It  was  an  heroic  voyage,  in  which  the  chances  of  his  escaping 
the  lynx  eyes  of  Cromwell's  spies  were  but  few ;  and  Hyde 
strongly  opposed  the  venture,  which  hazarded  the  life  of 
the  King's  most  powerful  supporter.  But  Ormonde  accom- 
plished his  mission  in  safety.  For  weeks  he  lay  concealed 
in  London,  and  managed  to  hold  communications  with  the 
principal  Royalists  in  England.  He  found  the  discontent 
against  the  Protector's  Government  as  widespread  as  had 
been  reported,  and  the  zeal  of  the  Royalists  as  keen.  But 
these  favourable  signs  were  marred  by  mutual  suspicions 
and  the  absence  of  any  common  plan.  In  such  circumstances 
patience  was  the  only  wise  policy.  Matters  were  not  yet 
ripe  for  what  must  be  a  final  attempt.  The  Royalists  must 
still,  for  a  few  months  longer,  wait  until  the  King  was  pro- 
vided with  means  for  landing  with  a  force  sufficient  to  form  a 
nucleus  for  any  general  rising,  if  that  was  to  be  attended  with 
fair  hope  of  success.  Meanwhile  the  RoyaHsts  in  England 
must  concert  plans  amongst  themselves. 

Just  at  the  time  that  Ormonde  started  on  his  perilous 
enterprise,  Charles  made  another  change  in  his  Council. 
Herbert,  the  Lord  Keeper,  had  been  left  behind  when  the 
King  quitted  Paris,  taking  the  Great  Seal  into  his  own 
custody.^  Herbert  had  since  died,  and  the  office  of  keeper 
was  now  vacant.  In  January,  165^,  Hyde  was  appointed 
— much  against  his  own  advice — to  be  at  once  Lord  Keeper 
and  Lord  Chancellor.  It  was  essential  that,  on  the  eve  of 
a  possible  restoration,  the  great  offices  of  the  Crown  should 

'  The  Great  Seal  had  been  lost  by  the  King  at  Worcester,  having  been 
in  the  King's  own  custody  after  the  death  of  Sir  Richard  Lane,  who  had 
been  the  last  Keeper  under  Charles  I.  After  his  escape,  the  King  had  another 
seal  engraved,  intending  to  keep  it  in  his  ow-n  custody  so  long  as  he  was 
abroad.  He  had  been  persuaded  by  the  Queen  to  confer  the  office  on 
Herbert  in  1655. 


392  CEOMWELL'S    PEOTECTOEATE    [chap,  xiii 

be  filled,  and  should  not  be  left  to  be  the  prey,  at  a  critical 
moment,  of  the  most  unabashed  applicants  for  reward. 

Unwilling  to  be  left  inactive  amid  the  clash  of  arms, 
Charles  offered  to  join  his  own  troops  in  the  Spanish  camp, 
and  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Spain  he  carried  out  his 
intention.  He  was  present  at  the  earlier  operations,  and  was 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight  at  Dunkirk.  If  the  scandals  that 
touched  his  name  might  shake  the  faith  of  his  devout  ad- 
herents, he  was  resolved  at  least  that  lack  of  courage  should 
never  be  laid  to  his  account.  Disaster  dogged  the  Spanish 
arms  ;  and  in  June  Dunkirk  fell  to  Turenne,  and  accord- 
ing to  treaty  was  delivered  to  Cromwell  in  return  for  the 
help  he  had  given  to  the  French. 

While  Cromwell  thus  won  new  success  abroad,  his  hands 
were  full  enough  of  trouble  at  home.  By  the  exercise 
of  his  own  authority  he  dismissed  Lambert  from  the  army, 
and  lessened  the  overgrown  power  of  the  major-generals. 
But  this  did  not  check  the  progress  of  disaffection.  The 
Cavaliers  found  new  encouragement  to  plot  in  the  seeth- 
ing of  discontent  around  them.  Cromwell  could  only  use 
these  new  and  thickening  plots  as  a  means  of  excusing  his 
own  severities,  and  stimulating  the  zeal  of  his  adherents. 
A  young  gentleman  of  the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Mor daunt 
had  been  in  communication  with  Ormonde  during  his  visit 
to  England,  and  was  now  arranging  to  send  out  commissions 
in  the  King's  name.  He  was  betrayed  and  arrested,  and 
with  two  others.  Sir  Harry  Slingsby  and  Dr.  Hewett,i  an 
Anglican  clergyman,  he  was  arraigned  before  a  new  High 
Court  of  Justice.  He  managed  to  elude  conviction,  much 
to  Cromwell's  undisguised  anger  ;  but  both  Slingsby  and 
Hewett    were  condemned  and    executed.      Other   victims 

'  Dr.  Hewett  was  the  clergyman  who  had  performed  the  marriage 
service,  according  to  the  Anglican  rite,  for  Cromwell's  daughters,  the  wives 
of  Lord  Rich  and  Lord  Falcon  bridge. 


1658]        THE   ANABAPTISTS'   DECLARATION        393 

followed,  but  the  tide  of  conspiracy  was  only  checked  for 
the  moment.  The  zeal  of  his  opponents  inspired  them  to 
court  any  danger  in  defiance  of  Cromwell's  detested  power. 

Evidence  of  a  new  source  of  disaffection  was  now  given 
in  a  long  and  eloquent  address  dispatched  to  Charles  on 
behalf  of  the  Anabaptists.  It  was  a  powerful  appeal,  in 
which  the  usual  scriptural  phraseology  was  strangely  mixed 
with  shrewd  political  reasoning.  They  took  blame  to  them- 
selves, and  counted  themselves  as  worthy  to  sujEfer  from  the 
visitation  of  divine  wrath  ;  but  at  the  same  time  managed 
to  hint  at  errors  in  the  old  Government  that  excused  their 
action,  and  while  they  offered  to  fight  for  the  restoration  of 
the  King,  they  coupled  that  offer,  not  undexterously,  with 
bargaining  for  the  maintenance  of  free  government.  The 
address  was  signed  by  Wildman,  amongst  others ;  and  it 
is  no  rash  conjecture  to  ascribe  its  authorship  to  his  facile 
and  effective  pen.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  letter — probably 
also  Wildman's  own — which  adopted  a  certain  contemptuous- 
ness  of  tone  in  its  allusions  to  the  extravagant  phraseology 
of  the  address,  and  tempered  its  heated  appeals  to  scripture 
with  more  of  worldly  wisdom  and  political  strategy.  The 
writer  described  how  he  had  combated  the  vain  prejudices 
of  the  sectaries,  and  persuaded  them  to  be  guided  by  the 
dictates  of  reason  ;  and  how  much  hope  he  had  that  their 
aid  might  be  effectually  used  to  further  the  designs  of  the 
King.  Wildman — if  we  are  right  in  identifying  him  as 
the  author  of  the  letter  and  address — soon  visited  Bruges. 
His  interview  with  the  King  and  his  ministers  was  satis- 
factory ;  and  Wildman  returned  to  England  to  prosecute 
his  aims  with  new  zeal,  and  with  some  confident  hope  of 
effective  aid. 

At  the  close  of  his  brief  campaign  with  the  Spanish  army, 
Charles  retired  from  Brussels  in  August,  and  took  up  his 
residence  at  Hochstratten,  on  the  borders  of  Flanders,  within 


394  CEOMWELL'S    PROTECTORATE     [chap,  xiii 

six  miles  of  Breda,  where  Hyde  now  was.  Hyde  had  there 
a  good  opportunity  of  contrasting  the  poverty  of  the  popula- 
tion in  Flanders,  subject  to  the  unlicensed  plunder  of  the 
Spanish  troops,  with  the  settled  prosperity  of  the  Dutch 
at  Breda.  It  helped  to  convince  him  how  unstable  was  the 
alliance  to  which  Charles  was  at  present  fain  to  trust. 
The  King's  hopes  were  built  upon  a  sorry  foundation,  if  his 
restoration  were  to  be  accomplished  only  by  the  aid  of  the 
decaying  power  of  Spain. 

It  was  while  Charles  lingered  here  and  waited  for  tidings 
of  the  wavering  hopes  and  fears  of  his  adherents  that  news 
reached  him  which  mightily  changed  the  situation.  In  the 
midst  of  his  stern  and  successful  fight  with  disaffection, 
Cromwell  had  met  his  conqueror.  On  September  3rd, 
1658,  after  a  fortnight's  illness  from  tertian  ague,  the  Lord 
Protector  died.  His  death  took  place  amidst  a  storm  of 
wind  that  wrought  havoc  all  along  England's  coast,  and 
transcended  any  tempest  within  memory.  The  very 
elements  seemed  to  be  stirred  to  commotion  at  the  passing 
of  a  power  that  by  its  own  sheer  force,  and  with  no  aid 
from  accident  or  fortune,  had  shaped  the  history  of  a 
mighty  people,  and  had  dominated  European  politics.  The 
great  Dictator  had  time,  before  his  death,  to  nominate  his 
eldest  son  Richard  as  the  successor  of  his  rule.  It  remained 
to  be  seen  whether  such  a  bequest  could  be  effective,  when 
the  genius  that  had  founded  that  rule  was  gone. 


END    OF   VOL.  I. 


PRINTED   BT   WILLIAM   CLOWES   AND  SONS,    LIMITED,    LONDON   AND   BECCLES. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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